Pine Gap ‘spy base’ makes Australia a target, researcher claims

MOST of us know very little about this secret military facility in Central Australia. Instead of protecting us, it “makes us a target”.

IT’S the top secret military facility in Central Australia that plays a key role in US intelligence and military operations around the world.

But rather than protecting us from a potential enemy attack, Pine Gap’s very existence makes us an ideal target.

That’s the view of Richard Tanter, a professor in the School of Political and Social Studies at the University of Melbourne, who told news.com.au the level of data collected from Pine Gap was beyond staggering.

Prof Tanter has conducted years of research into the facility with ANU colleague and leading authority on Pine Gap, Desmond Ball, and will next week deliver a keynote speech on the potential danger it brings to Australia.

Pine Gap will be just one of several topics discussed at the independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) national conference in Alice Springs on Saturday week.

Peace activists, academics and antimilitarism groups will all travel to the red centre to mark the 50th Anniversary of Pine Gap, aiming to illustrate the huge role it plays in US military activity.

Prof Tanter, a researcher with the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, said Pine Gap remains one of the most important intelligence facilities outside of the United States today.

Radomes, which protect the satellite dish inside, at Pine Gap. Picture: Kristian Laemmle-Ruff

According to Prof Tanter, its importance to the US military is enough to make Australia a target in any major war our American ally is involved in.

He said Pine Gap allows access to satellites that could spy on every continent — except the Americas and Antarctica.

The data collected is used for drone attacks in places where Australia was not even at war, he said.

Pine Gap also plays a vital role in collecting a wide range of signals intelligence as well as providing information on early warning of ballistic missile launches.

Intelligence gathered here could be used to target nuclear weapons and is also used to support US and Japanese missile defence.

This is the closest most of us will ever get to Pine Gap.

SYMBOLIC PRESENCE

Pine Gap maintains a powerful presence in the middle of the country, five decades after it began operating, largely because Australians don’t know a lot about what goes on there.

“In a way it has a strong symbolic presence in Australia because it conjures up secrecy and power,” Prof Tanter said.

“In the centre of Australia we have Uluru and nearby its ‘evil twin’.”

Prof Tanter, one of Australia’s leading experts on US/joint military facilities in Australia, said even past prime ministers, including Gough Whitlam, had little clue as to what went on there.

Pine Gap first came into play during the Cold War as a means of monitoring Soviet missile tests.

But in recent years it has taken on a far more strategic role including forming part of the controversial US missile defence system.

“Pine Gap is used for nuclear war planning,” he said.

“Today it is used for signals intelligence and as an early warning system.”

Strategically it also gathers vital information.

On the signals intelligence side, Prof Tanter said satellites orbiting 36,000km above the Earth over the equator, picked up phone signals from across the globe.

This Google Earth image taken last year reveals the extent of the antenna systems at Pine Gap. Picture: Nautilus

“Signals intelligence at Pine Gap can pick up and analyse huge amounts of data,” he said.

“Someone on a cell phone in Syria for example, that conversation can be traced from Pine Gap.”

Signals from this phone would be sent back to a tower, which is then directed out to space and intercepted by Pine Gap.

Prof Tanter said such information was used by the CIA and the US Air Force in targeted drone attacks in places such as the Middle East and Pakistan.

WARNING SYSTEM

While acknowledging the early warning defence system was vital in detecting a potential North Korean missile for example, Prof Tanter said it had other ramifications.

“It’s obviously very valued by the US but how is it viewed by China?” he said.

“The idea of such a shield has not gone down well with the Chinese who have remained angry about this for the past 10 years.”

He said China would see such a defence system as aggressive, adding it upsets the nuclear balance in the region.

Prof Tanter said the fact that both China and the US possessed nuclear weapons was almost a deterrent to conflict since no-one wanted to use them, but the missile defence shield could be viewed as antagonistic.

“There is the old story (of Pine Gap) and a new story,” he said.

Pine Gap near Alice Springs has grown over the years.

“Both involve Australia and nuclear issues, then it was the US and Russia and now it’s the US and China.

“Then it was just strategic, long-term intelligence and now it is about fighting wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

“I’m not saying Pine Gap has no benefit at all.

“But when those benefits are far outweighed by dangerous consequences then that has implications for Australia.”

He said Pine Gap was crucial to US military operations and the US-Australian alliance made it harder for us to question things when our interests collided.

WHAT DOES PINE GAP DO?

It’s a secret, at least as far as the US and Australian governments are concerned, but here’s what we do know.

The facility, which is 20km southwest of Alice Springs has been in existence since 1970.

Run by both Australia and the United States, its official name is the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap.

It has three surveillance systems but primarily serves as the ground control station for geosynchronous signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellites developed by the CIA.

A US Air Force Plane is loaded with pallets of data collected from the Pine Gap Defence Facility at Alice Springs Airport.

It was originally used to collect information on Soviet missile testing, but its purpose has grown in recent years and now has 33 antennas, mostly satellite dishes in radomes.

More recently it has grown to be used to intercept phones and satellite communications.

Pine Gap also hosts a remote ground station for US early warning satellites.

It collects signals intelligence, provides details on early warning ballistic missile launches, as well as providing battlefield intelligence data for United States armed forces operating in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

It also contributes to and collects data used for US drones.

This is what most people think of when we hear the words Pine Gap.

‘CRITICAL CONTRIBUTION’

News.com.au contacted Defence Minister Marise Payne for comment regarding Pine Gap and the benefits it has for Australia.

A Defence Department spokesman said the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap facility makes an important contribution to our national security.

“It provides intelligence on priorities such as terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and foreign military capability and weapons developments,” he said.

“It also supports monitoring of compliance with arms control and disarmament agreements, and provides ballistic missile early warning information.”

A Defence White Paper released earlier this year also highlighted how important Pine Gap is to both the US and the Australian governments.

According to the paper, Pine Gap “makes a critical contribution to the security interests of Australia and the United States, delivering information on intelligence priorities such as terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and military and weapons developments, while contributing to the verification of arms control and disarmament agreements”.

It also details how “activities at Pine Gap are governed by the Australian Government’s longstanding policy of full knowledge and concurrence”.

This, it says, ensures all activities at the joint facility are consistent with Australia’s interests.

A long-distance view of Pine Gap showing the multi-beam antennas, known as Torus, which can simultaneously intercept up to 35 satellite communications beams. Picture: Richard Tanter, Nautilus Institute

SPY GAMES

Prof Tanter is not the only one voicing concerns about the role Pine Gap plays in Australia.

Social worker and peace activist Margaret Pestorius is planning on travelling to the conference from Cairns for what she regards as an important anniversary.

She said Pine Gap’s original and still most important function is to serve as the ground control station for US satellites.

She said these cover a third of the globe, including China, southern Russia and the Middle East oilfields.

“It’s a central part of the US global surveillance system, which is not only used to spy on Australian and US citizens alike, but is implicated in drone attacks in the Middle East, in places where Australia is not supposed to be at war,” she said.

“Because of its importance the US base is a natural target, and actually puts Australians at greater risk. By no measure is its purpose to protect us.”

The late prime minister Malcolm Fraser was also concerned about the role Pine Gap played in the Australia/US alliance.

In Dangerous Allies, a book written before his death, he argued it was no longer in our strategic interest to have a strong military relationship with the US and called for a more independent foreign policy.

Pine Gap is the small cleared area above the pink A in the bottom left. The town of Alice Springs is top right. Pic: Google maps