Pine Gap

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Pine Gap is just west of Alice Springs, near the geographic center of Australia.

Warning sign on the road to Pine Gap

Pine Gap is the commonly used name for a satellite tracking station at 23.799 S, 133.737 E, near the city of Alice Springs in the heart of Australia that is operated by Australia and the U.S. 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. It is believed to be one of the largest ECHELON ground stations and appears to be physically and operationally similar to the signals intelligence facilities at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado and Menwith Hill, United Kingdom. US government personnel at Pine Gap are believed to be mostly from the National Security Agency and subordinate service-associated agencies, and the Central Intelligence Agency.

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.

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 US governments signed the Pine Gap treaty, Pine Gap has grown from the original two antennas to about a dozen and a half in 1999. The number of staff has also increased, from around 400 in the early 1970s, to 600 in the early 1990s, and then to an expected 1000 early this century. The biggest expansion occurred after the end of the Cold War.

He described the CIA-run facility as the ground control and processing station for geosynchronous satellites engaged in signals intelligence collection, outlining four categories of signals collected:

• telemetry from advanced weapons development, such as ballistic missiles, used for arms control verification;
• signals from anti-missile and anti-aircraft radars;
• transmissions intended for communications satellites; and
• microwave emissions, such as long distance telephone calls.

He 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); however, this bar is not strictly adhered to.

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 US Air Force's control station for infrared satellites that monitor heat emissions from missiles, giving first warning of ballistic missile launches.

Pine Gap is also the subject of many UFO reports, part of what is sometimes called Australia's version of Area 51, the portion of the Nevada desert on which much of America's UFO interest is focused.

Protests

In December 2005, six members of the Christians Against All Terrorism group staged a protest outside Pine Gap. After being denied permittion to perform a citizens inspection of this facility, four of the protesters gave warning (including the specific day) of their intention to inspect the facitlity anyway. They broke in to the facility when they said they would, and were eventually arrested. Their trial began on Tuesday 3rd October 2006, and it will be the first time that Australia's Defence (Special Undertakings) Act of 1952 will be used.

See also

• ECHELON
• Menwith Hill
• Misawa Air Base
• Australian constitutional crisis of 1975#Alleged Role of the United States government

References

• Joint Standing Commitee on Treaties. An Agreement to extend the period of operation of the Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap. Report 26. Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, October 1999.
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Pine Gap. Retranscription of program broadcast on 4 August 2003.
• Craig Skehan, "Pine Gap gears for war with eye on Iraq. Sydney Morning Herald, 30 September 2002.

23.79780°S 133.7366°E / -23.79780; 133.7366