Australian Minister for Defence, I am pleased to announce that the Australian Defence Force will move to improve its satellite communications capabilities under a A$30-$50 million phase of the military satellite communications project.
The project will investigate the building of a new satellite communications ground station in Western Australia to support the Defence payload on the SingTel/Optus C1 satellite.
Satellite communications provide an import capability in support of ADF operations.
A new ground station will improve the performance and reliability of the ADF satellite communications system. Depending on the option chosen, it will also improve Australia's ability to use commercial and allied military satellites over the Indian Ocean for the support of deployed forces in places such as the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Defence will also seek to harness new technology to acquire new ground systems that are better able to exploit the capabilities of the Defence payload and other communications satellites used by the ADF for the command and control of its forces.
This capability is an important contributor to the requirements set out in the Defence 2000 White Paper, by ensuring that Defence
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