Joint Defense Facility Nurrungar
Encyclopedia
Woomera, South Australia
The town, or village, of Woomera is located in the south east corner of the Woomera Prohibited Area ; colloquially known as the Woomera Rocket Range...
was a facility operated jointly by the Australian Department of Defence and the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
from 1969 through 1999. Its official area of emphasis was space-based surveillance, in particular the early detection of missile launches and nuclear detonations using U.S. Defense Support Program satellites in geostationary orbits. The name Nurrungar derives from an aboriginal term meaning "listen".
Current state of the facility
Inside the fence of the large facility there are many large rooms including kitchens and some secure rooms. There is even still a tennis court on the grounds. The whole facility is completely empty and stripped of lights and power plugs. There are still bulletproof secure rooms in the facility. Along the inside the fence there are rows of barbwire, microwave beams and many other security features.Cold War uses
During the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
the site was crucially important to America's defences, being at the time the only facility for providing "launch on warning" surveillance of enemy ICBM launches. Not surprisingly, it was also regarded as one of the Soviets' top ten targets in the event that such an attack would actually take place.
Politically it was both a symbol of U.S.-Australian relations, and highly controversial in Australia. This was mainly due to fears that the site could prompt a nuclear attack on Australian soil, and antipathy towards the US alliance amongst the Australian political left. Political demonstrations were staged at the facility in 1989, 1991 and 1993. Despite allegations that Australians were restricted from areas crucial to the facility's intelligence gathering capabilities, Australian military personnel were fully integrated into the site's operations. The public in general was not even aware of its existence until November 1970, a full year after it had been in operation. Its precise location did not leak out until sometime later.
Vietnam War
Leaked Department of Defence documents have revealed that satellites controlled by the Pine GapPine Gap
Pine Gap is the commonly used name for a satellite tracking station at, some south-west of the town of Alice Springs in the centre of Australia which is operated by both Australia and the United States. The facility has become a key part of the local economy.It consists of a large computer complex...
and Nurrungar facilities were used to pinpoint targets for bombings in Cambodia
Operation Menu
Operation Menu was the codename of a covert United States Strategic Air Command bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia and Laos from 18 March 1969 until 26 May 1970, during the Vietnam War...
.
Persian Gulf War
During the Persian Gulf WarGulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
it managed to score a few positive publicity notes for detecting early launches of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i Scud
Scud
Scud is a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and exported widely to other countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name SS-1 Scud which was attached to the missile by Western intelligence agencies...
missile attacks; years later, a USAF assessment would emerge revealing that oversights at the base were partly responsible for one of the worst disasters for Coalition forces during the war, on 26 February 1991 when an Iraqi Scud missile broke up above Dhahran
Dhahran
Dhahran is a city located in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Large oil reserves were first identified in the Dhahran area in 1931, and in 1935 Standard Oil of California drilled the first commercially viable oil well...
and fell into a warehouse housing U.S. soldiers, killing 28 and injuring more than 100.
The report found that ground operators at Nurrungar played a part in the tragedy, which the Air Force described as a "worst case combination of events"; these were in turn compounded by failures in the MIM-104 Patriot
MIM-104 Patriot
The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied nations. It is manufactured by the Raytheon Company of the United States. The Patriot System replaced the Nike Hercules system as the U.S. Army's primary High to Medium...
intercept system deployed near the Dhahran base itself.
Decommissioned in 1999
After September 1999 its operations were moved to the Joint Defense Facility Pine GapPine Gap
Pine Gap is the commonly used name for a satellite tracking station at, some south-west of the town of Alice Springs in the centre of Australia which is operated by both Australia and the United States. The facility has become a key part of the local economy.It consists of a large computer complex...
, near Alice Springs, and ownership of the premises were transferred to the Woomera Test Range (Headquartered in Adelaide). The ADF now use the site occasionally for army test and evaluation work under the approval of the Woomera Test Range.
The Woomera Test Range has taken some new steps with the announcement of Project JP3024, "Remediation of the Woomera Test Range", while Nurrungar is not specifically included in that project, Army and Air Force have been jointly using the site off and on since 2009. The site is surrounded by a high security perimeter fence and still includes one of the old (believed heritage listed) large radome structures. The radome still has the old radar dish inside but it is believed all the operating mechanisms have long since been stripped out and sold for scrap. "