Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station, Geraldton

• Introduction
• Government sources
• Parliamentary questions and debates
• Analysis and commentary
• Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station, Geraldton
• Echelon
• Mobile User Objective System (MUOS)
  
• See also

Introduction

The Australian Defence Satellite Communications Ground Station is located at Kojarena, 30 km east of Geraldton in Western Australia. It is operated by the ADF Defence Signals Division [DSD]. As of November 2005, the base was staffed by 79 personnel, and housed five radomes and eight satellite antennas.

The Kojarena station is a major Australian DSD signals interception facility, and is part of a worldwide system of satellite communications keyword monitoring known as Echelon operating within the wider UKUSA signals intelligence system.

In November 2007 the Australian government announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States government for the building of an additional but separate facility within the grounds of the ADSCGS. This is to consist of three small buildings, three 19-metre 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.

The Kojarena MUOS facility will be one of four MUOS ground stations, with the others being located Niscemi, Sicily (Naval Air Station Sigonella), Virginia (Northwest location) and Wahiawa, Hawaii (Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific [NCTAMSPAC]).

Government sources

Australian government

Australia and United States Defence Satellite Communications Cooperation at Geraldton, Department of Defence, 2008-07-21

Construction activity is expected to commence on a joint Australian and United States defence satellite communications ground station at the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station (ADSCS) Geraldton in 2008. The station will support the US Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), which is a satellite-based mobile phone network designed to support US, Australian and allied military users. 

MOU Signed For Australia-US Joint Military Communications Ground Station, Department of Defence, Media Release, 8 November 2007.

The Australian Department of Defence and the US Navy have now signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which sets out the governing arrangements for a joint military communications ground station near Geraldton, Western Australia. The joint ground station will support the US Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), which is a satellite-based mobile phone network designed to support US and Australian military users, including deployed forces. Works are expected to commence in early 2008 and the joint ground station is scheduled to become operational in March 2010.

Australia-US Joint Communications Facility To Be Hosted At Geraldton, Brendan Nelson, Minister for Defence, Media Release, 15 February 2007.  

“The Government has agreed to host a ground station for a US strategic and military satellite communications system at the Australian Defence Satellite Communication Station (ADSCS) located at Geraldton in Western Australia.  The new ground station will be sited within the grounds of ADSCS but will be unrelated to the existing activities of ADSCS which will remain under separate Australian control.

“The ground station will form part of the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS). MUOS, in simple terms, will be a satellite-based mobile phone network. MUOS will support US and Australian users, including deployed forces. The ground station at Geraldton will comprise three small buildings housing the electronic infrastructure, power and spares, three 18 metre satellite dishes and two smaller antenna covering an area of approximately 12,000 square metres or less than the size of two and a half rugby fields. Once complete, it will be unmanned requiring only call-out contractor maintenance support.”

Parliamentary questions and debates

Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station, (Question No. 2326), Questions in Writing, House of Representatives, Parliament of Australia, 5 November 2005.

Mr Melham (Banks) asked the Minister representing the Minister for Defence, in writing, on 7 September 2005:

(1) How many personnel currently work at the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station (ADSCS) in Geraldton, Western Australia.

(2) How many ADSCS personnel are (a) Australian Department of Defence personnel, (b) Australian Defence Force personnel, (c) employees of Australian contractors, and (d) any other personnel.

(3) Which private contractors provide personnel or deliver services at the ADSCS.

(4) What was the cost to the Government of running the ADSCS for each financial year since 1996-1997.

(5) Since March 1996, have any Federal and State Members of Parliament (a) visited the ADSCS and (b) received classified briefings on the functions of the station; if so, which Members and when did the visits and briefings take place.

(6) How many radomes and satellite antenna are located at the ADSCS.

(7) What functions are performed by the ADSCS.

Answer: Mrs De-Anne Kelly (Dawson—Minister for Veterans’ Affairs)—The Minister for Defence has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question:

(1) 79.

(2) Detailed staffing information regarding the operation of ADSCS is classified. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO, ASIS, and DSD conducts a review of the annual financial and administrative aspects of DSD’s operations. This review includes details of the staff and budget for ADSCS.

(3) L3comm (ESSCO) is contracted to provide antenna radome maintenance. Boeing Australia is also contracted to provide services at ADSCS, some of which are fulfilled by the following private sub-contractors:

Raytheon Australia Pty Ltd; Barclay’s Pest Control; Delron Cleaning; Geraldton Electrical Company; Lincolne Scott Australia Pty Ltd; National Oils; Collex Waste Removals; Midwest Business Services; Geraldton Extinguisher Services; Drager Australia; Western Power Fleet Services; and Testing and Commissioning Services.

(4) Detailed financial information regarding the operation of ADSCS is classified.

(5) The following Federal and State Members of Parliament visited ADSCS since 1996 and received briefings as indicated:

(a) 26 March 1996: The Hon Ian McLachlan AO MP, Minister for Defence, received a classified briefing.

(b) 18 November 1998: The Hon John Moore MP, Minister for Defence, received a classified briefing.

(c) 10 September 2002: Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade: The Hon David Jull MP, the Hon Kim Beazley MP, the Hon Leo McLeay MP, Senator Sandy McDonald, received a classified briefing.

(d) 5 October 2002: Senator the Hon Robert Hill, Minister for Defence, received a classified briefing.

(e) 13 July 2003: The Hon Danna Vale MP, Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, the Hon Wilson Tuckey MP, Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government, received a classified briefing.

(f) 11 June 2004: Senator the Hon Chris Ellison, Minister for Justice, received a classified briefing.

(6) 5 radomes and 8 satellite antennas.

(7) The station is managed by the DSD and is operated in cooperation with other parts of the Department of Defence. The operational details of the facility are classified.

Kojarena Satellite Ground Station - Expanded Function: Motion, Hon. Giz Watson, (North Metropolitan), Hansard, Parliament of Western Australia, 19 September 2007.

Analysis and commentary

 Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station, Geraldton

Desmond Ball, Australia's Secret Space Programs, Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No 43, 1988, chapter 4.

Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station, Geraldton, Western Australia, Wikipedia

Australia hosts new US spy facility, Dan Nolan, Al Jazeera, 2007-05-11

Echelon and Kojarena

Nicky Hager, Secret Power:  New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network, Craig Potton, Nelson, New Zealand, 1996, chapter 2.

Careful, they might hear you, Duncan Campbell, The Age, 23 May 23 1999.

“Australia has become the first country openly to admit that it takes part in a global electronic surveillance system that intercepts the private and commercial international communications of citizens and companies from its own and other countries. The disclosure is made today in Channel 9's Sunday program by Martin Brady, director of the Defence Signals Directorate in Canberra. Mr Brady's decision to break ranks and officially admit the existence of a hitherto unacknowledged spying organisation called UKUSA is likely to irritate his British and American counterparts, who have spent the past 50 years trying to prevent their own citizens from learning anything about them or their business of ‘signals intelligence’ – ‘sigint’ for short.

In his letter to Channel 9 published today, Mr Brady states that the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) ‘does cooperate with counterpart signals intelligence organisations overseas under the UKUSA relationship’. Together with the giant American National Security Agency (NSA) and its Canadian, British, and New Zealand counterparts, DSD operates a network of giant, highly automated tracking stations that illicitly pick up commercial satellite communications and examine every fax, telex, e-mail, phone call, or computer data message that the satellites carry.

The five signals intelligence agencies form the UKUSA pact. They are bound together by a secret agreement signed in 1947 or 1948. Although its precise terms have never been revealed, the UKUSA agreement provides for sharing facilities, staff, methods, tasks and product between the participating governments.

Now, due to a fast-growing UKUSA system called Echelon, millions of messages are automatically intercepted every hour, and checked according to criteria supplied by intelligence agencies and governments in all five UKUSA countries. The intercepted signals are passed through a computer system called the Dictionary, which checks each new message or call against thousands of ‘collection’ requirements. The Dictionaries then send the messages into the spy agencies' equivalent of the Internet, making them accessible all over the world.

Australia's main contribution to this system is an ultra-modern intelligence base at Kojarena, near Geraldton in Western Australia. The station was built in the early 1990s. At Kojarena, four satellite tracking dishes intercept Indian and Pacific Ocean communications satellites. The exact target of each dish is concealed by placing them inside golfball like ‘radomes’.”

“About 80 per cent of the messages intercepted at Kojarena are sent automatically from its Dictionary computer to the CIA or the NSA, without ever being seen or read in Australia. Although it is under Australian command, the station - like its controversial counterpart at Pine Gap - employs American and British staff in key posts.”

“Among the ‘collection requirements’ that the Kojarena Dictionary is told to look for are North Korean economic, diplomatic and military messages and data, Japanese trade ministry plans, and Pakistani developments in nuclear weapons technology and testing. In return, Australia can ask for information collected at other Echelon stations to be sent to Canberra.”

Inside Echelon, Duncan Campbell, Telepolis, 25 July 2000.

Interception Capabilities 2000, Duncan Campbell, Report to the Director General for Research of the European Parliament (Scientific and Technical Options Assessment programme office) on the development of surveillance technology and risk of abuse of economic information, April 1999.

Desperately Seeking Signals, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March-April 2000.

"The Echelon system that [Nicky] Hager describes links together computers, known as 'dictionaries' at UKUSA ground stations. hose computers contain, for each of the cooperating agencies, a list of keywords whose appearance in any intercepted message makes the message an item of interest to the agency."

"Before Echelon appeared in the 1970s, the agencies shared intelligence, but they usually processed and analyzed the intercepted communications. As a result, most exchanges involved finished reports rather than raw intercepts. Echelon on the other hand is an integrated network that allows the agencies to specify which intercepts are of interest and to receive them automatically via computer."

"Australia operates a more extensive intercept facility at Geraldton in Western Australia. When Geraldton opened in 1993 it had four intercept dishes targeted on INTELSATs orbiting above the Indian Ocean and [the] Pacific. Among the keywords in the Geraldton dictionary are ones relating to North Korea's economic, diplomatic and military situation, Japanese trade ministry plans, and developments in Pakistani nuclear weapons technology."

Mobile User Objective System (MUOS)

Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), Lockheed Martin manufacturer's image. http://www.lockheedmartin.com/data/assets/14436.jpg

Source: Lockheed Martin.

MUOS satellite and ground station schematic

Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), Bryan Scurry, PEO Systems, 29 June 2005. http://enterprise.spawar.navy.mil/pd14/PMW146/Documents/PMW146%20Fact%20Sheet%20(MUOS).pdf

 Source: Mobile User Objective System (MUOS),
Bryan Scurry, PEO Systems, 29 June 2005. 

Special Report: The USA's Transformational Communications Satellite System (TSAT), Defense Industry Daily, 11 October 2007.

"As video communications is integrated into robots, soldiers, and UAVs, and network-centric warfare becomes the organizing principle of American warfighting, front-line demands for bandwidth are rising sharply. The Transformation Communications Satellite (TSAT) System is part of a larger effort by the US military to address this need.

“Yet its survival is not assured by any means. Outside events and incremental competitors could spell its end just as they spelled the end of Motorola's infamous Iridium service. This updated DID Special Report looks at the TSAT program, its challenges, and the potential future(s) of U.S. military communications.”

"The TSAT Program is actually just one node in a broad spectrum of programs known as the Transformational Communications Architecture (TCA), version 1.0 of which was approved by a Joint Requirements Oversight Council Memorandum (JROCM) on October 23, 2003."

“Communications satellites come in three flavors: narrowband systems like IRIDIUM that suffice for voice transmissions but lack bandwidth, wideband systems for sending large amounts of data, and protected satellites that are 'protected' against jamming and nuclear effects. TCA v1.0 makes use of all three.

"The TCA envisions a Global Information Grid (GIG) that includes the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) for unprotected wideband, the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS or next generation narrowband) scheduled for launch in 2009, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF next generation protected, a.k.a. Milstar III) to be launched between 2008-2011, an Advanced Polar System for various strategic missions, and the Transformational Communications Satellite (TSAT) system that could be launched from 2013 as a major upgrade, instead of deploying AEHF #4 & 5.”

Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), Bryan Scurry, PEO Systems, 29 June 2005. http://enterprise.spawar.navy.mil/pd14/PMW146/Documents/PMW146%20Fact%20Sheet%20(MUOS).pdf

Source: Mobile User Objective System (MUOS),
Bryan Scurry, PEO Systems, 29 June 2005.

Military Explores Third-Generation Cellular, Adam Baddeley, Military Information Technology, Vol 9, Issue 1, 18 February 2005.

"Keen to reduce the cost of custom development on military programs, the Department of Defense is now including 3G cellular technologies in programs that will shortly reach frontline troops. These programs include such systems as the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) and the Warfighter Information Network Tactical (WIN-T), which are central to the vision for communications transformation. The adoption of 3G technologies will enable DoD to draw on a well of COTS expertise designed to provide enormous information throughput. This can be used to provide dismounted soldiers in the field, on exercise, overseas and even at home, with the requisite communications capability. With its considerable “beachhead” in several key building blocks of the Global Information Grid, 3G’s importance in DoD communications is expected to grow rapidly.

"MUOS, for example, is one of the key MILSATCOM programs being pursued by DoD today, and at its heart is a 3G cellular waveform. Together with Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) in the secure protected EHF domain, and the Wideband Gapfiller Systems constellations delivering X- and Ka-band MILSATCOM, MUOS will provide a triad of capabilities by the end of this decade.

"Throughput of the new system will be considerable. In the UHF narrowband domain, satellite capacity and channel data rate will grow from 400 Kbps and 19.4 kbps, respectively, in today’s UHF Follow On (UFO) constellation, to 4000 kbps and 64 Kbps in the MUOS solution, according to retired Air Force Major General Robert Dickman, deputy for military space in the Office of the Undersecretary of the Air Force. Put another way, while one UFO satellite can provide 106 simultaneous accesses at 2.4 Kbps, a MUOS satellite will provide 7,100 simultaneous accesses at the same rate. The MUOS satellite also includes a new UFO payload, and so will increase the UFO constellation capacity at first launch. MUOS will deliver video, voice and data simultaneously.

"Lockheed Martin Space Systems was awarded the $2.1 billion contract to build the first two MUOS satellites last year, with options for up to three more satellites. Operational turnover of the first MUOS satellite is planned for 2010. The second MUOS satellite is planned for turnover in 2011, with full operational capability planned for 2014.”

MUOS overview

OS), Bryan Scurry, PEO Systems, 29 June 2005. http://enterprise.spawar.navy.mil/pd14/PMW146/Documents/PMW146%20Fact%20Sheet%20(MUOS).pdf

Source: Mobile User Objective System (MUOS),
Bryan Scurry, PEO Systems, 29 June 2005.

"Capt. David Porter, program manager for the Navy Satellite Communications Program Office, emphasizes the importance of the new satcom system's improved capacity, terminal mobility and ease of use.This would involve a 10-fold increase in transmission throughput (volume of information), compared with the Navy's current UHF Follow-on (UFO) satellite system. The MUOS constellation is expected to boost satellite capacity and data rates substantially. The MUOS system would provide the capacity of 39 Mbits/s, compared with the predecessor UFO capacity of 2.5 Mbits/s. To put it another way, a MUOS satellite would provide more than 7,000 simultaneous accesses (video, voice and data) at 2.4 Kbits/s, compared with 106 accesses for a UFO satellite at 2.4 Kbits/s. As the total simultaneous accesses are reduced, the channel rate goes up. MUOS satellites will be fully compatible with the UFO system and associated legacy terminals."

"MUOS enables true 'coms-on-the-move,' according to Porter, adding that, should an unexpected event occur, warfighters would be able to easily report to or summon assistance from their chain of command without having to aim an antenna and expose themselves to hostile fire. Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) radios are expected to incorporate the MUOS waveform. The goal is to achieve handheld cell phone-like services via MUOS satellites that act like very tall cell towers. Porter says that, 'strategically, MUOS will facilitate rapid response to any part of the globe.' Ground troops, sailors and airmen would have 'instantaneous access to prearranged tactical networks and worldwide communications, including the global information grid [GIG],' he adds. According to Porter, 'with JTRS terminals equipped with omnidirectional antennas, convoys of Humvees and tanks, soldiers fighting in urban areas, Air Force command and control aircraft supporting special ops, or Marines fighting in harsh climates will all be in constant communication within their chain of command.'"

"Sounds good, but today's warfighters will have to wait a few years. The MUOS constellation of four geosynchronous satellites (and one spare) will not reach full operational capability until some time after 2014. In fact, the first satellite will not be launched from Cape Canaveral for at least four more years. The MUOS constellation is required to provide satellite communications for 10 years beyond full operational capability. Further, much work must be accomplished to modify the JTRS ground infrastructure to be compatible with MUOS.”

“Orbital operations--including launch and early operations, payload status and anomaly resolution--will be handled by the Naval Network and Space Operations Command and the Naval Satellite Operations Center, both at Point Magu, Calif., and the latter's Detachment Delta at Schriever AFB, Colo. Satellite use operations--including provisioning, administration and help desk (the military equivalent to a customer service center)--will be the responsibility of the MUOS Global Satellite Support Center, co-located at the U.S. Strategic Command, and several regional support centers sited at various combatant commands. Navy facilities in Hawaii and Virginia will manage the network."

"Harris' satellite antennas, some more than 47 feet (14 m) in diameter, will enable the use of several spot beams to improve signal-to-noise levels and achieve up to 30-fold frequency reuse, something which is not possible in the UFO program. Comparable commercial systems now use L-band, 1.5-GHz downlinks."

"The first MUOS launch is scheduled in late 2009, providing an on-orbit capability in March 2010. Subsequent launches are planned for October 2010, June 2011, June 2012 and June 2013, and full operational capability is expected no later than July 2014. The MUOS operational documents specify a system life span through 2024. MUOS satellites are to have a 10-year service life. The current UFO constellation has nine satellites plus one on-orbit spare that provides a mix of 38 communications channels and one fleet broadcast channel.

"'The UHF spectrum has evolved into the military's workhorse,' says Porter. "There are more than 20,000 UHF terminals in use.' However, the UFO system already is 250 percent oversubscribed. 'Demand will only increase, as joint operations and network centric warfare evolve,' Porter asserts."

"Lockheed Martin's Commercial Space Systems unit in Newton, Pa., is developing the MUOS satellites; final assembly and test will take place in Sunnyvale, Calif. Major subcontractors to Lockheed include:

• General Dynamics C4 Systems, Scottsdale, Ariz., which will provide user entry and integrated ground segments of the MUOS; secure ground network, satellite control and network management; and a JTRS-compliant terminal (receiver).
• Boeing Satellite Systems, El Segundo, Calif., which will provide the legacy UHF payload.
• Ericsson, Plano, Texas, the leader in 3G mobile technology, which will provide vital segments of the MUOS ground system.
• Harris Corp., Melbourne, Fla., which will provide the large reflectors for the MUOS. The reflectors, two per satellite, will be part of the satellite's UHF-band antenna system.

Mobile User Objective System satellite and ground station schedule

EXHIBIT R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification, APPROPRIATION/BUDGET ACTIVITY, RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT TEST & EVALUATION, NAVY /R-1 ITEM, 0303109N Satellite Communications (Space), February 2007. http://www.dtic.mil/descriptivesum/Y2008/Navy/0303109N.pdf

 Source: APPROPRIATION/BUDGET ACTIVITY, RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT TEST & EVALUATION, NAVY /R-1 ITEM, 0303109N Satellite Communications (Space), Defense Technical Information Service, February 2007.

"The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) is an Ultra High Frequency (UHF) (300 MHz to 3 GHz frequency range) satellite communications (SATCOM) system, primarily serving the Department of Defense (DoD). MUOS operates as a global cellular service provider to support the warfighter with modern cell phone-like capabilities, such as multimedia. MUOS converts a commercial third generation (3G) Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) cellular phone system to a military UHF SATCOM radio system using geosynchronous satellites in place of cell towers. The UHF frequency band, operates at a lower frequency band than conventional terrestrial cellular networks. However, the UHF band provides adequate transmit power to give the military the tactical capability to communicate in "disadvantaged" environments, such as a heavily forested regions, whose signal would be attenuated by the forest canopy using conventional frequencies. The MUOS constellation will consist of four operational with one on-orbit spare. MUOS will provide the military with precedence-based service and preemption access to voice, data, video, or a mixture of voice and data in both point-to-point and netted communication services spanning the globe. Connections may be set up on demand by users in the field, within seconds, and then released just as easily, freeing resources for other users. In alignment with more traditional military communications methods, pre-planned networks can also be established either permanently or per specific schedule using the MUOS' ground-based Network Management Center."

"Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif., is the prime contractor and systems integrator for the MUOS program.  On Sept. 24, 2004, the company was awarded a $2.1 billion contract to build the first two satellites and associated ground control elements for the MUOS system.  The contract also provides for options on three additional spacecraft.  With all options exercised, the contract for up to five satellites has a total potential value of $3.26 billion."

Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), GlobalSecurity.org

Network Systems and Information Systems, C4 Systems, General Dynamics

Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), GlobalSecurity.org

See also

• Joint Australian-US Defence Facility - Pine Gap, Australian Forces Abroad
• Bibliography - Joint Defence Facility, Pine Gap, Australian Defence Facilities.
  
• Australian-US intelligence - Afghanistan and Iraq, Australia in Afghanistan
• Canadian SIGINT and Afghanistan, Australia in Afghanistan
  
• Australian intelligence organisations, Australian Forces Abroad