Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Aussie base for US spy planes






The US is considering using the Cocos Islands to launch unmanned surveillance aircraft. The Cocos (Keeling) Islands is a territory belonging to Australia made up of two flat, coral atolls and 27 coral islands of which two, west Island and Home Island are inhabited with a population of around 600. The Washington Post today reports “US and Australian officials said the atoll could be an ideal site not only for manned US surveillance aircraft but for Global Hawks, an unarmed, high-attitude surveillance drone.”








Prime Minister Julia Gillard did not deny the reports and said "Look, I'm not going to play a rule-in, rule-out game about something that's been discussed at officials level," she said.  This morning Defence Minister Stephen Smith told AM that the Cocos airstrip would need to be upgraded to be able to launch the drones and stressed that it was "very much a long-term prospect".








Stephen Smith said the US and Australia were looking at “three priorities” - the basing of US Marines in Darwin; greater air traffic through northern Australia and in the longer term, American access to the Navy’s HMAS Stirling base in Perth. The Cocos Island strategy was a long term prospect and should be treated as such.

There is a suggestion that the US is considering the Cocos Islands because its lease on Diego Garcia has almost expired.


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