Major expansion under way at secretive military base Pine Gap - AFR

Construction work is expanding Pine Gap, the joint Australian-US facility near Alice Springs that underpins satellite-based missile launch detection, signals intelligence and targeting support. Any growth in its footprint signals deepening US reliance on Australian territory for Indo-Pacific surveillance and missile-warning tasks, which raises both Australia's intelligence yield and its exposure as a target in any US-China conflict. It also sharpens long-standing questions about the degree of Australian control and insight into operations conducted from its own soil.