01 June 2014: What else is co-located at Exmouth Gulf with RAAF Learmonth?

In our previous update, another possible flight path for MH370 was suggested: POVUS -> Cocos Islands -> (AGSEL -> RAAF Learmonth). In short, the hypothesis is that, after a turn around the north-western tip of Indonesia (near POVUS), the plane

• 1. turned south on a fixed heading towards Cocos Islands (CCVOR), and then

  2. turned east from CCVOR towards RAAF Learmonth, continuing on this second fixed heading till the end.

The CCVOR – AGSEL segment of this path crosses the extrapolated 00:19 ring at ~(17.47°S, 105.39° E), which is 400 km north from the last search area (discounted now by the search effort).

Several comments in Duncan Steel's blog pointed out potentially relevant information on what else is co-located at Exmouth Gulf with RAAF Learmonth. This and other information is summarised below.

1. Learmonth is designated an emergency alternative airport in the case of fog or bad weather affecting Perth Airport.

2. From Australian Defence Force Posture Review (SUBMISSION BY EXMOUTH SHIRE COUNCIL):

The geo-strategic advantages of Exmouth’s position were primary drivers of its use for military purposes in the past. During the Second World War, Exmouth was used, under Operation Potshot, as a forward base for United States submarines. Exmouth was also the mainland jumping-off point for military and Qantas flights across the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka and thence to the Middle East and Europe. Exmouth was, in addition, a major RAAF fighter and long-range surveillance aircraft base and also a radar and communications site.

RAAF Base Learmonth is a joint military/civil facility located 34km south of the town. This airfield has an asphalt/concrete main runway 3,047 metres long together with associated taxiways and aircraft hardstands.

Another important Defence installation at Exmouth is the Harold E Holt very low frequency and high frequency communications station. The primary role of this facility is to relay signals to Australian and allied submarines and other Naval vessels that are operating in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific regions.

Adjacent to the Harold E Holt facility in Exmouth Gulf is a large deep water Navy fuel wharf. This wharf is designed to handle fuel transfers from large ships and also to handle modest quantities of general purpose cargo.

3. From Nautilus Institute article on Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt (North West Cape):

In 1997 Australia took over responsibility for the facility, although US involvement and funding continued. After December 2002, operation of the station passed to the Defence Materiel organisation’s Electronic and Weapons System Division together with contractors from Boeing Australia Ltd.

4. From Alan H Brockman, Myrtille Laas-Bourez and John A Kennewell, TWO NEW AUSTRALIAN SPACE DEBRIS OBSERVATORIES, published in Proceedings of the 10th Australian Space Science Conference, Brisbane, 27 - 30 September, 2010

For many years the Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) system has been the backbone of the US Space Surveillance Network optical sensors. GEODSS is currently deployed at three sites around the world. To augment this system, a network of smaller telescopes is now being deployed worldwide, under the acronym High Accuracy Network Determination System (HANDS). One of these systems has recently been established at the Learmonth Solar Observatory (LSO) on the North West Cape of Western Australia (22°222 S, 114°101 E).

...

The HANDS system at Learmonth provides metric and photometric data on satellites and space debris from low Earth to geosynchronous orbit.

5. From Garry Newsam and Neil Gordon (Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Australia), "An Update on SSA in Australia", The Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference, 2011:

However, while there has been a fair amount of speculation in the specialist press about what sensors might be located in Australia, to date the only surveillance of space systems actually deployed in Australia in recent times have been two small experimental Raven telescopes that are an extension of AFRL’s HANDS system [7]. These were installed at the Ionospheric Prediction Service’s station at Learmonth in Western Australia in 2009. Negotiations on an agreement to relocate an operational AN/FPQ-14 C-band tracking radar from Antigua to the Harold E Holt base near Learmonth are quite far advanced but still to be finalised.

6. From Minister for Defence Stephen Smith – Ministerial Statement on Full Knowledge and Concurrence, 26 June 2013:

Australian Defence facilities to which the United States has access to include, in particular:

• • the Naval Communication Station, Harold E. Holt, on the North West Cape of Western Australia which provides communications facilities for US and Australian submarines;

...

• • the Extended High Accuracy Network Determination System (Ext-HANDS) research installation in Learmonth in Western Australia comprising optical research sensors which collect data for space situational awareness research.

7. There is also a speculative suggestion that there may be a U.S. Military H.A.A.R.P. Facility in Exmouth (Colin Andrews). According to Wikipedia:

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is an ionospheric research program jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the University of Alaska, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Designed and built by BAE Advanced Technologies (BAEAT), its purpose is to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance.

HAARP is a target of conspiracy theorists, who claim that it is capable of modifying weather, disabling satellites and exerting mind control over people, and that it is being used as a weapon against terrorists. Such theorists have blamed the program for causing earthquakes, droughts, storms and floods, diseases such as Gulf War Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, and the 2003 destruction of the space shuttle Columbia. Commentators and scientists say that proponents of these theories are "uninformed", as most theories put forward fall well outside the abilities of the facility and often outside the scope of natural science.

HAARP in Alaska:

The speculation by Colin Andrews that a HAARP installation is located in Exmouth mentions the article "Pentagon Scientists Target Iran’s Nuclear Mole Men", where Prof. Dennis Papadopoulos, University of Maryland, notes the following:

Seeing through solid rock might sound like a tall order, but Darpa thrives on challenge. One project is called Airborne Tomography using Active Electromagnetics, which builds on technology originally developed by the geophysical exploration industry. The ground is illuminated with electromagnetic energy — typically extremely low frequency — and the distortions on the return show the presence of underground facilities and tunnels. Some years ago, military-backed scientists at Alaska’s High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) were able to map out tunnels at depths of a hundred feet or greater. Papadopoulos, for example, says he wants to do another round of subterranean surveillance experiments. “Personally, I believe it can reach 1,000 kilometers. It [currently] can’t reach Iran, if that’s your question,” one of those researchers, Dennis Papadopoulos told Danger Room. “But if I put HAARP on a ship, or on an oil platform, who knows?”.

Quoting Duncan Steel: "just to fuel some conspiracy theorists and whip them into a fervour"...

Mikhail P.