CGI's Dave404: Battle drone fear for NT
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Battle drone fear for NT “A FORMER military intelligence officer fears the United States will use the NT as a launchpad for war-fighting drones. Academic researcher Kate Reid-Smith said the Alice Springs airplane boneyard was the perfect spot to launch orbiting satellites and other military weapons. Ms Reid-Smith said she was concerned the US military would use the boneyard to keep a close watch on Southeast Asia and China. She said the boneyard could also be strategically used to deploy for US military aircraft involved in war-like operations. But Ms Reid-Smith feared any US militarisation of the boneyard would fail to protect Australians' self-interests. She said the boneyard was conveniently located near the US military's satellite tracking station outside Alice Springs, Pine Gap. "The boneyard alike Pine Gap has everything going for it,'' she said in an essay published in On Line Opinion. "Just outside twenty degrees latitude south of the equator, arid desert location, isolated in an area of low electromagnetic radiation, relatively low population, an easily controlled-access site, and potential area-denial strategies including no-fly zones." Ms Reid-Smith added the boneyard was being built by the same company that built Australia's new Defence Headquarters in Canberra, Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage. She said the new boneyard was the second largest in the world and the only facility of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. "Being built practically next door to Pine Gap, it raises questions as to whether such facilities are in danger of becoming forward staging platforms for US interests into Southeast Asia in light of the rise of China threat thesis,'' she said. Ms Reid-Smith said the Territory's relatively unpopulated and remoteness, within the near-equatorial orbital zone south of the equator, made it one of the most desirable places on Earth to launch a satellite into geostationary orbit. "As the USA launches it's revitalised Look East policy, the NT provides a stable and reliable platform from where potential American satellites, space or drone war-fighting capabilities that rely heavily on equatorial orbiting satellites, can be safely and securely launched,'' she said. She said the boneyard could be used as a base for remotely controlled drones and other types of unmanned aerial warfare. "Questions that are just the tip of the iceberg in regional geostrategic terms with no answers forthcoming,'' she said. A US Marine Corps general told News Ltd more than 1000 troops would be based in Darwin next year.” http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2013/07/12/322774_ntnews.html Dave404. |
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