Pacific Perspective:Meet Pine Gap,the Crucial Joint Intelligence Base in the Australian Outback

Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap (JDFPG) is an ultra-secret intelligence base near the town of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory.Its existence is not acknowledged,but over the years academics,photographers and a few former staff members have uncovered and/or shared a fair amount of information about one of the most critical national security facilities in the Indo-Pacific Region.US tenants at the facility nestled in a desert ecosystem with jagged hills include the CIA,National Security Agency (NSA),National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).NSA's signals intelligence (SIGINT) work here is code-named RAINFALL;while NRO operates the Australian Mission Ground Station (AMGS). Among the assets at JDFPG are 38 radomes covering dish antennae and a vast computer complex in the operations centre,which is staffed 24/7/365.The total base staff,including US servicemembers,numbers at least 800.JDFPG is,among other missions,a control station for geosynchronous US spy satellites which pass over China,Eastern Russia,and the Middle East.It is a ground control and processing station for SIGINT satellites,to include those intercepting advanced weapons telemetry;anti-missile and anti-aircraft radar signals;communications satellite traffic;and microwave transmission (for instance,long-distance telephone calls).The base's departments include a Satellite Station Keeping Sector;Signals Processing Station;and Signals Analysis Station.* Every morning,the US-Australian Joint Reconnaissance Schedule Committee chooses the spy satellite tasking for a 24-hour period.Formerly the US Air Force,but now possibly the US Space Force,maintains the control station for missile heat and emission-detecting satellites.JDFPG monitors Chinese and North Korean weapons and communications.It also plays a key role in gathering geolocation data and supports military operations such as air strikes.It was involved in the Afghan War.Additionally,Pine Gap controls spy satellites that gather intelligence over Eurasia,Africa,Southeast Asia,Eastern Europe and Atlantic Ocean nations.With an elevation of 589 m/1932 ft,the facility plays a role in US missile defence,early warning and drone strikes.It is a Commonwealth of Australia Restricted Area under the Defence (Special Undertaking) Act 1952.No Trespassing,No Photography,No Firearms.Maximum Penalty Imprisonment Seven Years,a sign proclaims.Security personnel patrol the base every ten minutes.* Pine Gap has about twenty support buildings and what appears to this blog to be a tunnel entrance.An unconfirmed report mentions nine underground levels built to withstand three simultaneous nuclear strikes.The Australian Government believes it derives a lot of useful intelligence from the joint operation conducted in 20,000 square meters of operations space.Most of the Chiefs of Facility were senior CIA officials,but,in recent years,the NSA has had its share of COFs.The Deputy COF is always an Australian Government official.* In 2015,there were 55 US civilian operations personnel and 105 US military operations personnel at Pine Gap.The Australian Government had 50 operations personnel and there were 45 contractor personnel,bringing the total of operations centre staff to 255.The remaining two-thirds of the base staff were engaged in support and maintenance activities.This information was garnered by Australian academics Desmond Ball,Bill Robinson and Richard Tanter in their report "Management of Operations at Pine Gap (2015)".* The NGA manages imagery (IMINT) and geospatial intelligence functions involving foreign satellite/communications satellite interception systems,missile launch detection and tracking data.The Mission Ground Center (MGC) of the NRO at Pine Gap is an integrated data centre where IMINT and SIGINT is fused in a format providing ready integration of intel collected by other air and ground systems,as well as human intelligence (HUMINT).* America supports you,our military men and women and Intelligence Community.*