Woomera Rocket Range Honored

US honours Woomera range as historic site
May 23, 2007

THE Woomera rocket range in South Australia has been declared a historic aerospace site, a rare honour for a facility outside the US.

The honour was granted yesterday by the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, recognising Woomera's history for rocket testing and its continuing role as an evaluation facility.

"This is a rare honour. Woomera is one of only four non-US locations to be internationally recognised by AIAA," federal Parliamentary Defence Secretary Peter Lindsay said. "This award represents a significant milestone for Woomera."

Mr Lindsay joined Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd and the AIAA's executive director, retired major-general Robert Dickman, at the award ceremony at Woomera township yesterday morning.

Woomera was synonymous with testing of missiles during the Cold War.

LINKS

www.netspace.net.au/~pargoo/woomera.html

www.users.bigpond.com/.../LSCamRoc_Serp_98.htm

www.totaltravel.com.au/.../guide/woomera

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Australia 'to join missile defence study'
May 22, 2007

JAPAN and the US plan to expand a joint study on missile defence by adding Australia amid concerns about North Korea's weapons program, a news report said today.

Japan and the US have been stepping up efforts to build a joint missile defence system following North Korea's nuclear test in October. Australia would join the two countries to share information on missile defence and discuss how to respond to various situations, Japan's business daily Nikkei reported, citing unnamed officials at Japan's Defence Ministry.

Defence Ministry officials could not immediately confirm the report. The three countries reached an agreement on the three-party joint study during a meeting of defence and foreign affairs senior officials held in Tokyo last month, the paper said.

The possible scenarios that the three countries will study are attacks by North Korea's medium range missiles as well as Chinese ballistic missiles reaching the US territory of Guam or Australia, Nikkei said. Australia has not decided to introduce missile defence but is expected to explore the possibility of having such a system, according to the report.

AP