Alongstanding goal of the United States military is to control space. The Defense Department calls the doctrine Full Spectrum Dominance. Australia plays a key role. Rockets launched near the equator benefit from the Earth’s rotation. Oz’s relatively clear skies and stable weather enable ground-based space observation. The country’s proximity to Asia makes it an ideal base for US intelligence-gathering.
Under American auspices, Australian forces are consolidating in order to modernize their space warfare capabilities. Successive governments are introducing ever-increasing budgets to pay for militarization. The nuclear-armed regime in China considers this to be a provocation and is escalating accordingly.
But all is not lost. Dedicated peace groups across the country are resisting the subjugation of their nation.
FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE
A plethora of US agencies and commands are committed to space domination. Most were founded in the 1980s. They include: Air Force Space Command, Army Space and Missile Command, Navy Space Command, Space Command, and Space Force. In addition, the satellite-dependent National Reconnaissance Agency is one of 18 US intelligence agencies.
Consider the myriad US-led military projects to which Australia belongs: AUKUS (Australia-UK-US agreement); Combined Space Operations (along with nine other nations); the Five Eyes (signals intelligence); the Global Sentinel (a US-led annual workshop comprised of over 20 nations); and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (with the US, India, and Japan).
These alliances have real-word effects. America’s Peterson and Schriever Space Force Base states that the Australian Defence Force operates three over-the-horizon radars. These constitute the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN). It was recently reported that due to US federal funding cuts, Canada would complete the project. But the fact is that US tests conducted with JORN date back decades. JORN facilities are located at Alice Springs (Northern Territory), Laverton (Western Australia), and Longreach (Queensland). They “provide surveillance coverage of Australia’s northern approaches.”
AUSTRALIA’S EXPANDING ROLE
In 2021, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced AUD 1 billion (USD 650m) for the creation of a Sovereign Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise (GWEO), supposedly to enable the country to produce its own arms in the interests of self-defense. But the “Sovereign” GWEO actually serves the US government. Contracts for GWEO were awarded to the Australian subsidiaries of the US companies, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. In a self-contradiction worthy of Orwell, Minister for Defence Peter Dutton said: “we need to work closely with our partners to bolster our self-reliance.”
These systems are integrated into space assets. “Missiles and drones … offer a relatively cheap means of projecting power,” says an academic study published by the University of Sydney, sponsored by the arms manufacturers Thales, Raytheon Australian, and Lockheed Martin. The study investigates the importance of US-Australia relations of GWEO. It also explains the relation of GWEO to space warfare: “improved offboard sensors for targeting, including those in space, and to the communications networks that pass targeting data from sensors to shooters.”
SOVEREIGNTY, WHAT SOVEREIGNTY?
Within a year, the Australian government had authorized the creation of the Defence Space Command: “The space domain is critical to Defence operations,” it says. Selling the system to the populace requires emphasizing the role that space now plays in everything from banking to the functioning of traffic lights. “The Joint Force relies on access to space systems and information – as do the Australian public.” The government says that in the absence of safeguards, hostile states, notably China, could easily harm Australia’s space assets. But military expansion is not, in this case, an act of sovereignty.
In April 2023, US Space Command signed an Enhanced Space Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Defence Space Command “to improve coordination and interoperability to maintain freedom of action in space.” In July of that year, the Australian Defence Force created its first space unit under the auspices of the Joint Capabilities Group.
Australia’s space domain awareness is now run by the No. 1 Space Surveillance Unit (1SSU). 1SSU operates the US-led Space Surveillance Telescope, which was moved to Australia in 2017 and forms part of America’s Space Surveillance Network.
RADAR
The US military has also developed Australian radar infrastructure. The C-band radar is positioned at the Naval Communications Station Harold E. Holt, near Exmouth (western Australia). The Air Force Association (Australia) notes that the radar provides “southern hemisphere coverage of resident space objects for catalogue maintenance, space object identification …, and support for special events.” We can only imagine to what the latter refers. However, the Defence Department (Australia) confirms that “the C-Band Radar and SST [Space Surveillance Telescope] are joint initiatives of the United States Space Force and the ADF [Australian Defence Force].”
Exmouth is also home to Australia’s component of DARC: the US-led Deep Space Advance Radar Capability. The second element will be built in Pembrokshire, UK, and the third reportedly in Texas. These locations were chosen because of their relative remoteness and favourable conditions for observing space in all-weather conditions, 24/7.
CONCLUSION: RESISTANCE
Named after their mystical haze, the Blue Mountains are a range in New South Wales, Australia, inhabited by the Dharug and Gandangara First Peoples. They are home to formations, such as the 200 million-year-old Three Sisters rock formation. The Mountains are also home to a network of dedicated peace activists, including Friends of Palestine, Wikileaks Cafe, Quakers, and the Blue Mountains Unions Council. In recent years, with Israel’s genocide in Gaza, these organizations have worked with the Blue Mountains Peace Collective (BMPC). The BMPC hosts symposiums, publishes scientific reports opposing AUKUS, and regularly petitions politicians.
Like the BMPC, the Australian Anti-AUKUS Coalition (AAAC) also campaigns for a nuclear-free world and for Australia to ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The website states: “Australia has unwisely signed two agreements that make us a military appendage of the USA: AUKUS … and the Force Posture Agreement [FPA].” The FPA obligates Australia to position its forces in the Indo-Pacific in service to the US. According to AAAC, the FPA “[e]nables the USA to operate nuclear-capable bombers and warships from Australia, without declaring if they are actually nuclear armed.”
Finally, founded in 2012 the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) is a coalition of 43 organizations. IPAN also fights for a nuclear-free world and against initiatives like AUKUS. Like the other peace groups, IPAN understands that freedom from US colonialism cannot be achieved without the First Peoples:
“We acknowledge the traditional custodians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and respect their continuing culture. We acknowledge their country was violently seized 230 years ago, and affirm that genuine independence of Australia cannot be achieved without a just and sovereign Treaty with the indigenous people of this land.”
T. J. Coles is director of the Plymouth Institute for Peace Research and the author of several books, including Voices for Peace (with Noam Chomsky and others) and Fire and Fury: How the US Isolates North Korea, Encircles China and Risks Nuclear War in Asia (both Clairview Books).
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/24/resisting-australias-role-in-us-space-domination/
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