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Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station

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Signals intelligence listening station in Western Australia

28°41′42″S 114°50′32″E / 28.69500°S 114.84222°E / -28.69500; 114.84222 The Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station (ADSCS), an Earth station in Australia is located at Kojarena 30 km (19 mi) east of Geraldton, Western Australia. The ADSCS is part of the US signals intelligence and analysis network ECHELON.

This Defence facility contributes to Australia's National Security and Defence. The Proposal to develop the station was announced in March 1987, work commenced on site in 1988 and was completed in 1993. The buildings, Antennas and other station facilities occupy about 26 hectares.

The surrounding buffer zone of 442 hectares is also owned by the Commonwealth and provides protection for the station against external electrical interference. The buffer zone land is farmed under license by the former land owners.

Australian Construction Services, part of the Department of Administrative Services, managed the construction of the site buildings and services. The antennas, of Australian design, were erected by a joint venture between AWA Defence Industries and Baulderstone Engineering. The site's construction workforce peaked at 170 in mid-1990.

The station has four satellite tracking dishes which intercept communications from Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Pakistani regional satellites and international communications satellites (Intelsats and COMSATs), throughout the Indian Ocean and South-East Asian regions. Staff are drawn from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), and the site is operated under the UKUSA Agreement.

In 2007, after signing an agreement it was announced that an additional but separate US military communications facility would be built within the grounds of the ADSCGS. It will consist of three 19 m (62 ft) antennas and two smaller antennas making up a joint US-Australian ground station for the US Department of Defense Mobile User Objective System, a narrow-band networked satellite constellation for Ultra-High-Frequency satellite communications enabling secure all-weather and all-terrain 3-G mobile telecommunications.

References

  1. "Tracking down the masters of terror". The Age. 17 March 2003. Retrieved 22 February 2008.
  2. Adshead, Gary (10 June 2001). "Secret WA spy base". The Sunday Times (Perth). p. 20.
  3. Interception of satellite communications Ing Manuel Cereijo, 29 May 2006 The Cuban American National Federation archived version
  4. "ECHELON Main Stations". World-Information.Org. Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
  5. "Agreement Between the Government of Australia and the Government of the United States of America on Cooperation in Science and Technology for Homeland/Domestic Security Matters (Washington, 21 December 2005) ATS 15 of 2007“. Australasian Legal Information Institute, Australian Treaties Library. Retrieved on 18 April 2017.

  6. "Australia-US Joint Communications Facility To Be Hosted At Geraldton" (Press release). Brendan Nelson, Minister for Defence. 15 February 2007. Archived from the original on 23 May 2007. Retrieved 2011-08-11.

  7. "MOU Signed For Australia-US Joint Military Communications Ground Station" (Press release). Department of Defence. 8 November 2007. Archived from the original on 27 November 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
  8. "Australian and United States Defence Satellite Cooperation at Geraldton" (Press release). Department of Defence. 21 July 2008. Archived from the original on 29 November 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2011.

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