BY MUHAMMAD MA’RUF, Ph.D
Thinker and writer on Geo-Philosophy, Geopolitics, Geostrategy, Security and Defense issues. Director Global Thinkers Institute (GTI).
GTI- Without a doubt, it is no longer a secret, Australia's role in Israel's ground operations in Gaza 2023. Australia is deploying large troops and aircraft to the Middle East, as acknowledged by Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles.
Australia has special proximity to several US and NATO military operations. Australia not only sent troops to join NATO to the Middle East in anticipation of regional war, but also provided strategic intelligence data - Pine Gap.
Geostrategically, Australia is a member of the AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, United State) security pact, the backbone of the US and UK controlling Asia Pacific and West Asia. Australia has combat experience in the Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam wars.
Pine Gap
One of the main elements of Australia's involvement with the US war project was Pine Gap. The Pine Gap entity is an Australian satellite surveillance base and Earth station located approximately 18 km southwest of the city of Alice Springs, Northern Territory in central Australia.
Pine Gap is controlled by Australia and the United States. Since 1988 it has been officially called the Joint Defense Facility Pine Gap (JDFPG), previously known as the Joint Defense Space Research Facility.
Pine Gap is controversial for Australian society. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators once blocked the entrance to Pine Gap calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, 20 ok 2023.
A number of groups (Quakers and the Australian National Union of Students) gathered at the gates of Pine Gap to protest the use of the base in the Iraq war, 5-7 October 2002.
Pine Gap Station is run in part by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the US National Security Agency (NSA), and the US National Intelligence Office (NRO). Key contributor to NSA's global interception/surveillance efforts, including the ECHELON program.
ECHELON (Five Eyes). Secret government code name (intelligence analysis/SIGINT). Operated by five signatory countries to the UKUSA Security Agreement. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The unclassified NRO name for the Pine Gap base is Australian Mission Ground Station (AMGS), while the unclassified term for the NSA's function at the facility is RAINFALL.
RAINFALL [NSA code name Pine Gap] detects, collects, records, processes, analyzes and reports PROFORMA signals collected from assigned target entities.
These PROFORMA signals are radar and weapons system communications data collected in near real-time—including signals of remote Hamas rocket launches, as well as threats of missile launches from Lebanon or Iran.
Pine Gap detects, collects, records, processes, analyzes and reports PROFORMA signals collected from assigned target entities.
Pine Gap is a ground control and processing station for geosynchronous satellites involved in gathering signals intelligence. It consists of four categories of signals collected: First, telemetry from advanced weapons developments, such as ballistic missiles, used for weapons control verification. Second, signals from anti-missile and anti-aircraft radars. Third, transmissions intended for microwave emission communications satellites, such as long-distance telephone calls. Fourth, microwave emissions, such as long-distance telephone calls.
Pine Gap was used as a ground station for spy satellites in two secret missions: Mission 7600 with 2 geosynchronous satellites to cover Eurasia and Africa.
Mission 8300 with 4 geosynchronous satellites covering the former Soviet Union, China, Asia. South, East Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, and countries in the Atlantic Ocean
Pine Gap and Gaza
According to “Declassified Australia”, Pine Gap collected a large amount of communications and electronic intelligence for the IDF during Israel's war on Gaza.
The website details that two large US satellites operate from the Pine Gap base, sending large amounts of intelligence data from the Middle East, Europe and Africa to the base. After collecting and analyzing communications and intelligence data for the US National Security Agency, the Pine Gap base transmitted the information to the Israeli army.
Secret US base in Gaza
Earlier this month, The Intercept reported that two months before the start of the Palestinian Resistance's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the Pentagon awarded a multimillion-dollar contract for the construction of facilities for US troops at a secret base located in the Nejev Desert, known by the code name Site 512.
Site 512, previously referred to as a “cooperative security location,” a label intended for low-cost, minimal-presence bases, has been applied to facilities capable of housing up to 1,000 troops.
According to The Intercept, Site 512 was not created to address the threat posed by the Palestinian Resistance, but rather to counter the danger posed by Iran's medium-range missiles.
However, when thousands of Palestinian Resistance rockets were launched on October 7 towards illegal Israeli settlements and occupied cities, Site 512 remained inactive because its main focus was monitoring Iran, which was more than 700 miles away.
Although President Joe Biden denies plans to deploy US troops, a covert US military presence exists and continues to grow, including a mix of mercenary combatants from Ukraine.
The US surveillance base at Pine Gap located outside Alice Springs in Australia is tasked with collecting large amounts of communications and electronic intelligence for the IDF.
The two large Orion geosynchronous signals intelligence satellites, owned by the US and operated from Pine Gap, are located 36,000 km above the equator over the Indian Ocean. From there, they monitored the Middle East, Europe and Africa, and gathered vast amounts of intelligence to send back to the Pine Gap base.
After collecting and analyzing communications and intelligence data for the US National Security Agency (NSA), Pine Gap provided it to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The US and Australia are working hard to support Israel in carrying out the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. As weapons continue to flow, dozens of C-17 military transport planes possibly carrying ammunition have crossed the Atlantic en route between the United States and Israel.
According to open source flight tracking data, most of them landed at the Negev Air Base, south of Israel. President Joe Biden has requested $14.3 billion in aid for Israel in addition to the more than $3 billion in military aid already provided. The Biden administration sent $320 million worth of precision spice bombs to Israel, as reported by several media outlets in the US Congress.
Among the latest missiles used by Israel to shoot Gazans at Al-Shifa Hospital are the Hellfire R9X or ninja missiles. It did not explode, but produced six cutting knives that cut the victim's body.
Most estimates use JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs made by Boeing which blew up most of the buildings while making a hole 30-50 m deep. Apart from its function of killing and terrorizing civilians, it is used to detect Hamas tunnels. The price per unit is around $21,000–$36,000. JDAM can be launched from F-15E, F-16, F/A-18, F/A-18E/F, AV-8B, A-10, B-1B, B-52H, F-22, B-2A aircraft , F-35, MQ-9, MiG-29, Su-27, Tornado.
Israel's Gaza ground operation in 2023, viewed historically and economically by NATO, is similar to other military operations in Libya, Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. One NATO official admitted that during the Ukraine war, each 155 caliber piece of artillery produced four times the profit, without re-production.