Patrick Durrant | Sydney
On Sunday the Federal Government announced a $500 million investment to improve Defence's access to commercial satellites to provide information to government agencies.
Minister for Defence Marise Payne said Defence’s enhanced access to these satellites will increase Australia’s capacity to maintain surveillance and improve situational awareness for the ADF and other national security agencies through the provision of high-quality imagery. “This means imagery from high-end commercial satellites, now in orbit, will be integrated directly into the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation’s imagery dissemination systems, reducing the time it will take for satellite imagery to get to a member of the ADF or the officers of Australia’s national security agencies.”
Known as Defence Project 799, its origins can be traced to the recent White Paper
Known as Defence Project 799, its origins can be traced to the recent White Paper which stated: “Defence’s imagery and targeting capacity will be enhanced through greater access to allied and commercial space-based capabilities, strengthened analytical capability and enhanced support systems. Enhancements to our imagery capacity will provide the basis to further develop our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in the longer term, including through potential investment in space-based sensors”.
Industry sources approached by ADM were somewhat baffled by the “fanfare” and timing of the announcement and were waiting to see the detail of 799. One explained that satellite imagery is normally gathered by Low Earth Orbit (LEO) commercial satellites to allow for the higher resolutions required. LEO satellites move rapidly across their field of view and will store captured images until they pass over a ground station that is able to process the downloaded imagery. The location of the ground stations therefore determines the extent of the delay from the moment of image capture to its eventual dissemination. Once downloaded, the information then needs to be communicated to a centralised location where it can be further evaluated and shaped into a product before being forwarded to the appropriate stakeholders.
“This process can typically take days,” the industry representative told ADM. “Especially if there are third parties involved – these products are offered from many international sources, both government and commercial and the ground stations can sometimes be located in strange places.”
The Government will invest $144 million locally, with Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne having indicated that $14 million would be spent to build the ground infrastructure to collect imagery from commercial satellites; the remaining $130 million would be spent on support contracts over the 13 year life of the project.
ADM's source said it made sense to build a ground station in Australia to alleviate the delays inherent in the existing system. “Especially if you have sensitive information then having it managed by Australians is probably a smart thing.”
He also noted the relevance of the project to wideband satellite systems.
“If the intent of this project is to decrease the latency of capture of imagery to delivery, this could also possibly be augmented by use of broadband satellite linkages to transmit such information to mobile devices.”