AUS: $500 million for enhanced satellite capability

Minister for Defence Industry & Minister for Defence - Joint Media Release

The Turnbull Government has announced a $500 million investment to improve Australia’s space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, to support ADF operations around the world and at home to secure our borders.

Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP and Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Marise Payne today committed $500 million to improve Defence’s access to commercial satellites to provide information to government agencies.

This information will be used to support Australia’s defence priorities including defence operations, border protection and humanitarian missions.

Minister Payne said that Defence Project 799 was introduced in the 2016 Defence White Paper to enhance Australia’s geospatial-intelligence capabilities.

Phase 1 of the project will provide Australia with direct and more timely access to commercial imaging satellites to support a wide range of Defence and national security activities.

News Report: US Intel Images Suggest Another N. Korean Missile Launch Site

DPRK Missile Base (Image: Google Maps)

Ham Jiha

WASHINGTON — New reviews of satellite images suggest North Korea may possess another missile launching site at a village once suspected of having nuclear facilities.

The images, analyzed by Strategic Sentinel, a firm that deals with geospatial image processing, intelligence analysis and geopolitical research, exposed a missile silo in mountainous Geumchang-ri, North Pyongan province, where the U.S. intelligence community said in the late 1990s there was a nuclear weapons site.

The silo, an underground chamber used for storing and firing missiles, seems analogous to the one at a missile base in Tabriz, Iran, with the same 7.4-meter-wide sliding cover and the same type of exhaust vents, the intelligence consultancy told VOA on Tuesday.

That U.S.-based group added that this rectangular-shaped structure appears large enough to house current North Korean missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads that can strike neighboring countries, such as South Korea and Japan.

“If this Iranian site is housing missiles and the North Korean site that we have uncovered is the exact same dimension, then it’s quite possible that the site that we have uncovered is housing missiles as well,” said Ryan Barenklau, founder of Strategic Sentinel.

He also suggested a possible nuclear cooperation between the two countries.

News Report: Tokyo, Seoul Nail Down Agreement on Sharing Military Information

South Korea and Japan on Wednesday signed the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) that created the framework for both protection and sharing of secret military information, Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — The negotiations on the pact began in 2012, but ground to a halt as the opposition parties in Japan protested against the deal. After the two first rounds of the talks reopened in November Tokyo and Seoul reportedly agreed on a few major points, including the prohibition to supply third parties with intelligence information without each other's approval and the necessity to inform the other party if the information has been compromised in any way.

"Signing of the deal allows us to expect an appropriate protection of secret military information, which will be provided by the governments of Japan and South Korea [to each other], as well as an unimpeded and fast exchange of information between the governments of the two countries," the statement said. 

The statement added that South Korea would provide Japan with information about Pyongyang's ballistic missiles and information from North Korean defectors, while Tokyo would give its partners information about North Korean submarines and satellite images of Pyongyang's preparations to missile tests.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.

News Report: US Intel: Beijing Has Military Gear on Artificial Islands in South China Sea

A September 2015 image of China's Artificial Island built
on top of Fiery Cross Reef

The American spy agency that provides the Pentagon with assistance for the ongoing Pivot to Asia US military strategy has claimed that the artificial islands that China has constructed in the South China Sea are military installations.

China has been building artificial islands on reefs and rock outcroppings in the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos over the course of the past two years. During this period small clusters of sensitive reef habitat have been turned into large islands, with various structures, including a 3,000-meter runway.

Beijing has claimed that islands are built for civilian purposes, including rescue operations. However, nations claiming rights for the disputed South China Sea areas, alongside the US, have consistently claimed that the artificial islands are military in nature.

News Story: Terrorism, cyber threats pave way for review of Australia's intelligence agencies

CANBERRA, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government is set to undertake a major review of the nation's six intelligence agencies, as a response to the changing face of terrorism as well as the growing threat posed by cyber-spying.

In the wake of Australia's online census disaster, in which foreign hackers were able to shut down the nation's first online national survey, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has reportedly ordered the first major intelligence review since 2011.

A spokesperson for the prime minister told Fairfax Media that the nation's six agencies, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Office of National Assessments (ONA), the Defence Intelligence Organisation, the Australian Geospatial Organisation and the Australian Signals Directorate, would come under review in the next couple of months.

The spokesperson said the review was in response to a new era for national security.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: US Senator - Modi Visit Heralds Defense Pact & US Names India 'Major Defense Partner'

US Senator: Modi Visit Heralds Defense Pact

Joe Gould

WASHINGTON — When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Washington this week, expect a major announcement on defense, according to a top Senate Democrat.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking member, Ben Cardin, was not specific, but the comments come as India is on the brink of signing a logistics-sharing agreement the US has sought for a decade. Modi is scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama Tuesday and address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.

“The Indian prime minister wants to be seen visiting the US twice in a short period of time, and to me, that’s a huge statement in and of itself,” Cardin, D-Maryland, told reporters Tuesday. “The deliverables will flow from that, it will be on defense, it will be on climate.”

Called the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), the agreement is one of three that would deepen the existing US-India defense relationship. Such agreements—while largely symbolic—potentially pave the way for significant technology transfers, heretofore hindered by India’s reluctance to become a formal treaty partner of the US and the Indian defense establishment’s memory of US sanctions that ended only a decade ago.

Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar announced the talks on LEMOA were close after Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s most recent visit to India.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

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US Names India 'Major Defense Partner'

Joe Gould

WASHINGTON — The United States and India have reached a new series of agreements on climate change, nuclear power and national security Tuesday, including a new status for India as a "Major Defense Partner" to the US.

Following a meeting between President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday, the White House released a joint statement acknowledging the US-India defense relationship as a "possible anchor of stability," and heralding new technology sharing "at a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners."

The leaders reached an understanding under which India would receive license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with unspecified steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives, the statement read.

Read the full story at DefenseNews