Jindalee OTHR Takes Shape

Right now,this major project which is designed to improve our strategic surveillance coverage across the Northern Territory, is underway in remote mulga country near Longreach in central Queensland. It is perhaps symbolic that historic Longreach,the birthplace of Qantas, should be the focal point for the first of the new generation of Jindalee Over-The-Horizon-Radar stations, commissioned by the Defence Department.

Due for completion in 1997, this $1 billion project is the biggest Defence technology contract awarded in Australia. Prime Contractor is Telecom Australia, which signed a$679. 7m five year contract (July 1989 prices) in June last year. Known as Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN), the project will see the construction of two new radars near Longreach, and Laverton in south western Australia,and a JORN Coordination Centre (JCC) at RAAF Base Edinburgh,near Adelaide. There is also provision for a third radar in Central Australia.

The Jindalee story begins about 20 years ago when scientists and engineers from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) at Salisbury, South Australia, began experimenting with Over-The-Horizon-Radar technology developed for the United States Defense Department. Their work led to the construction of an experimental radar station near Alice Springs. This has since been upgraded as an operational station for the RAAF which will operate JORN for the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The station will also remain a testbed for future enhancements of JORN which will provide the necessary broad area surveillance for a layered defence strategy to protect our northern approaches.

What is Jindalee Over-The-Horizon-Radar? Essentially, the Jindalee station comprises a remote high frequency transmitter site which refracts a signal down from the ionosphere to illuminate a target; the echo from the target travels by a similar path back to the receiver site located about lO0kms from the transmitter. Unlike traditional radars which can ‘see’ only as far as the horizon, Jindalee is expected to be able to detect ships and aircraft at ranges of 2000 to 3000kms. No other radar system exists that canscan such a huge area (more than five million square kilometres can be covered by just one station) for the same cost.

JORN will play a major but complementary role in the overall defence of Australia’s north. As a wide area surveillance asset it will be used as a primary detection device to alert other ADF assets,such asF/A-18 fighter aircraft and the Navy’s Fremantle Class patrol boats, whose role is to intercept and identify surface or air targets of interest. Importantly,to assist in identifying JORN targets, the ADF has given high priority to the future acquisition of Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft (AWACS).

During peacetime, the network will also have a valuable civil role, watching for intruders planning to penetrate our customs and immigration net. The importance of protecting Australia’s primary producers from an influx of deadly animal and plant diseases cannot be overemphasised. Another important civil function of benefit to every Australian is Jindalee’s unique ability to monitor weather patterns, providing early warning of destructive cyclone conditions across the tropical north. While weather satellites can track cloud formations, Jindalee’s ‘look down’ radars can penetrate cloud to plot wind strength and direction at sea level; vital information for meteorologists needing to calculate theforce and direction of cyclone activity. All this is difficult to visualise when one drives to the remote,dry and dusty sitesfor the first transmitter and receiver sites south west of Longreach.

In early October the first heavy earth moving machinery roared into action, forming all weather access roads to the transmitter site about 30kmsfrom the sheep and cattle producing centre of Longreach. Similar work is also underway at the receiver site about 100 kms away near the small settlement of Stonehenge. Like its English namesake,Stonehenge will soon have its own tourist attraction- not a mystical array of ancient stone monuments to a long forgotten culture but a long, incongruous steel antenna array. It could be argued that both structures were designed to gather ‘signals from the heavens’. To ensure the radar’s emissions don’t interfere with electrical equipment and vice versa, land buffer zones covering some 135,000ha will surround each site,with most of the land being offered for leasehold grazing.

In economic terms,each radar will cost a year to operate and much of that money, including wages, will flow through to the local economy. This will offer welcome economic stability to the two remote communities and local communications,including roads,will also benefit. The prime contractor for the Longreach and Stonehenge site works is Roche Brothers with half the ground works contract value going to local firms. ,plant hire and services. The total cost of civil and building construction work for the two sitesis $38m. The work will generate some 25 jobs at each site initially, rising to a maximum of about 80 mainly building and radar installation workers. As one local resident quipped: “It looks like being a Jindalee led recoveryfor the Longreach district”.

Another key element of the project is the JORN Coordination Centre to be built at RAAF Edinburgh. The centre will have an operations centre and a software support and training facility. It will also be close to the birthplace of the Australian OTHR system, DSTO’s Surveillance Research Laboratories (SRL) at Salisbury, with its specialist knowledge expected to refine and improve JORN over the project’s expected 20 year operational life. The Operations Centre will receive electronic tasking from defence headquarters in Canberra and then allocate surveillance tasks to each of the remote radars, providing centralised command and control for JORN. In addition, Jindalee will use 18 locating beacons sited at strategic locations around the northern coastline.

What will Jindalee mean to Australia?

Firstly, we will have a much enhanced wide area surveillance network which will multiply existing Defence Force capabilities and have important spinoffs to other government agencies. Also important will be the wide ranging economic flow on benefits from such a large project, including a considerable new investment in our technology and manufacturing base, not to mention the future legacy of valuable technology transfer.

Finally,thanks to the efforts of our own scientists,engineers and industry, Australia will be served by the best OTHR network in the world