Pine Gap is the commonly used name for a satellite tracking station at , some 18 kilometres (11 mi) south-west of the town of Alice Springs in the centre of Australia which is operated by both Australia and the United States. The facility has become a key part of the local economy.[1]
It consists of a large computer complex with eight radomes protecting antennas and has over 800 employees. It is officially called the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap since 1988, previously it was known as Joint Defence Space Research Facility.[2] It is believed to be one of the largest ECHELON ground stations and appears to be physically and operationally similar to the American signals intelligence facilities at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado and Menwith Hill, United Kingdom. United States government personnel at Pine Gap are believed to be mostly from the National Security Agency and subordinate service-associated agencies as well as the Central Intelligence Agency.
As published in ERSA by CASA the airspace around Pine Gap is the only area in Australia designated as "prohibited" which prohibits entering and overflying the airspace up to a height of Flight Level 180 (approximately 18,000 ft or 5,500 m).
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Operations started in 1970 when about 400 American families moved to Central Australia.[1] In 1999, with the Australian Government refusing to give details to an Australian Senate committee on treaties, Intelligence expert Professor Des Ball from the Australian National University was called to give an outline of Pine Gap. According to Professor Ball, since 9 December 1966 when the Australian and United States governments signed the Pine Gap treaty, Pine Gap had grown from the original two antennas to about eighteen in 1999. The number of staff had increased from around 400 in the early 1980s to 600 in the early 1990s and then to an expected 1,000. The biggest expansion occurred after the end of the Cold War.
Ball described the facility as the ground control and processing station for geosynchronous satellites engaged in signals intelligence collection, outlining four categories of signals collected:
Ball described the operational area as containing three sections: Satellite Station Keeping Section, Signals Processing Station and the Signals Analysis Section, from which Australians were barred until 1980. Australians are now officially barred only from the National Cryptographic Room (similarly, Americans are barred from the Australian Cryptographic Room). Each morning the Joint Reconnaissance Schedule Committee meets to determine what the satellites will monitor over the next 24 hours.
With the closing of the Nurrungar base in 1999, an area in Pine Gap was set aside for the United States Air Force's control station for Defense Support Program satellites that monitor heat emissions from missiles, giving first warning of ballistic missile launches.
Since the end of the Cold War, the station has mainly been employed with intercepting and recording weapons and communications signals from countries in Asia, such as China and North Korea. The station was active in supporting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq after the September 2001 attacks.[3]
While much of its operation is secret, Pine Gap is known to be involved in numerous military satellite operations. As a result, it is occasionally targeted for protests, most recently during the war in Afghanistan.