Economic Factors Undermining National Security: Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, Australia

Matthias Beck ,Бек Марко

doi:10.22363/2312-8313-2020-7-2-135-140

Matthias Beck , Бек Марко

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-8313-2020-7-2-135-140

Copy DOI

Abstract

The article analyses Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap in Australia that is used by the United States to controls satellites pinpoint airstrikes around the world. The Joint Facility rises political controversy in Australia (especially after Edward Snowden’s revelations) as many doubt if it is in Australia’s best interests to contribute data for drone assassinations and targeting US nuclear weapons. Considering Australia’s policy towards Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap the author raises the question whether national security can be “outsourced” to save budget funds. The article concludes that in Australia it is noticeable that human intelligence potential in financial terms is less valued than some construction, manual jobs. Considering that Russia and China, which are in the focus of Pine Gap intelligence gathering do not outsource its national security and were more successful in preventing major information leaks, moreover in preventing major terrorist attacks on their soil, is indicating that national security should not be privatized.

Highlights

Pine Gap is the commonly used name for an Australian Earth station approximately 18 kilometers south-west of the town Alice Springs, Northern Territory in the center of Australia
Investment in Australian and US human intelligence (HUMINT) capital was in decline in recent years which can be seen from various examples of security breaches
Following the Iran disaster in a two-year period starting from the 2010, Chinese officials began accurately identifying spies working for the US, an action which was the result of exact correlation of Iranian and Chinese cooperation and was a clear underestimation of the Chinese counterintelligence capabilities and general sloppiness of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Summary

Introduction

Pine Gap is the commonly used name for an Australian Earth station approximately 18 kilometers south-west of the town Alice Springs, Northern Territory in the center of Australia. The United States controls satellites that gather information used to pinpoint airstrikes around the world and target nuclear weapons, among other military and intelligence task, according to experts and leaked National Security Agency documents [1; 2; 3].

Results

Conclusion