Introduction

The Australian Defence Satellite Communications Ground Station is located at Kojarena, 30 km east of Geraldton in Western Australia. It is operated by the ADF Defence Signals Division [DSD]. As of November 2005, the base was staffed by 79 personnel, and housed five radomes and eight satellite antennas.

The Kojarena station is a major Australian DSD signals interception facility, and is part of a worldwide system of satellite communications keyword monitoring known as Echelon operating within the wider UKUSA signals intelligence system.

In November 2007 the Australian government announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States government for the building of an additional but separate facility within the grounds of the ADSCGS. This is to consist of three small buildings, three 19-metre antennas, and two smaller antennas making up a joint US-Australian ground station for the US Department of Defense Mobile User Objective System, a narrow-band networked satellite constellation for Ultra-High-Frequency satellite communications enabling secure all-weather and all-terrain 3-G mobile telecommunications.

The Kojarena MUOS facility will be one of four MUOS ground stations, with the others being located Niscemi, Sicily (Naval Air Station Sigonella), Virginia (Northwest location) and /Y2008/Nav, Hawaii (Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific [NCTAMSPAC]).

SOURCE: Nautilus Institute at RMIT, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, 3001, Australia.

• MOU Signed For Australia-US Joint Military Communications Ground Station, Department of Defence, Media Release, 8 November 2007.
• Australia-US Joint Communications Facility To Be Hosted At Geraldton, Brendan Nelson, Minister for Defence, Media Release, 15 February 2007. 
• Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station, (Question No. 2326), Questions in Writing, House of Representatives, Parliament of Australia, 5 November 2005.
• Kojarena Satellite Ground Station - Expanded Function: Motion, Hon. Giz Watson, (North Metropolitan), Hansard, Parliament of Western Australia, 19 September 2007.
• Desmond Ball, Australia's Secret Space Programs, Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No 43, 1988, chapter 4.
• Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station, Geraldton, Western Australia, Wikipedia 
• Australia hosts new US spy facility, Dan Nolan, Al Jazeera, 2007-05-11
• Nicky Hager, Secret Power:  New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network, Craig Potton, Nelson, New Zealand, 1996, chapter 2.
• Careful, they might hear you, Duncan Campbell, The Age, 23 May 23 1999.
• Inside Echelon, Duncan Campbell, Telepolis, 25 July 2000.
• Interception Capabilities 2000, Duncan Campbell, Report to the Director General for Research of the European Parliament (Scientific and Technical Options Assessment programme office) on the development of surveillance technology and risk of abuse of economic information, April 1999.
• Desperately Seeking Signals, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March-April 2000.

• Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), Lockheed Martin manufacturer's image. Lockheed Martin
• Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), Bryan Scurry, PEO Systems, 29 June 2005.  - PDF
• Special Report: The USA's Transformational Communications Satellite System (TSAT), Defense Industry Daily, 11 October 2007.
• "The TCA envisions a Global Information Grid (GIG) that includes the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) for unprotected wideband, the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS or next generation narrowband) scheduled for launch in 2009, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF next generation protected, a.k.a. Milstar III) to be launched between 2008-2011, an Advanced Polar System for various strategic missions, and the Transformational Communications Satellite (TSAT) system that could be launched from 2013 as a major upgrade, instead of deploying AEHF #4 & 5.”
• Military Explores Third-Generation Cellular, Adam Baddeley, Military Information Technology, Vol 9, Issue 1, 18 February 2005.
• MUOS: Milsatcom’s Cutting Edge, Ron Sherman, Defense Daily Network, 1 June 2005.
• Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), GlobalSecurity.org
• EXHIBIT R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification, APPROPRIATION/BUDGET ACTIVITY, RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT TEST & EVALUATION, NAVY /R-1 ITEM, 0303109N Satellite Communications (Space), Source: APPROPRIATION/BUDGET ACTIVITY, RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT TEST & EVALUATION, NAVY /R-1 ITEM, 0303109N Satellite Communications (Space), Defense Technical Information Service, February 2007.
• Mobile User Objective System, Wikipedia
• Mobile User Objective System, Lockheed Martin
• Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), GlobalSecurity.org
• Network Systems and Information Systems, C4 Systems, General Dynamics
• Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), GlobalSecurity.org

• Joint Australian-US Defence Facility - Pine Gap, Australian Forces Abroad
• Bibliography - Joint Defence Facility, Pine Gap, Australian Defence Facilities. 
• Australian-US intelligence - Afghanistan and Iraq, Australia in Afghanistan
• Canadian SIGINT and Afghanistan, Australia in Afghanistan
• Australian intelligence organisations, Australian Forces Abroad