Aerial view of part of Osborne Naval (Ship and Submarine) Yard, Adelaide, South Australia. Osborne and North Haven residential suburbs can be seen at left upper corner.
(Photo courtesy Ship Technology .com.)
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Pete's Security Observations
There is a boom in Osborne's construction and upgrades of Australia's: Hobart class destroyers; Arafura class offshore patrol vessels; future Hunter class frigates; and Collins and future Attack class submarines. Osborne has therefore become a high value intelligence hotspot. Hence predictable growth:
- in size and number of consulates-general (basically mini "embassies" - perhaps housing
"diplomats", defence and press attaches who collect naval intelligence in Adelaide). China's
and Russia's consulates-general? ;
- in numbers of foreign engineering/scientific academics and students capable of collecting intel
and establishing lasting sensitive friendships at Adelaide universities, and
- of course, harder to detect non-official-cover "illegals" (not only Russians and Australian
"moles".
Shipbuilding institutional awareness of physical security (aided by the isolated nature of Osborne facilities) looks reasonable.
But aggressive sigint/cyber hacking can nullify facility security and even personal security of smartphones, tablets and home PCs.
"Good" humint approaches can also persuade bosses, employees and contractors to divulge Top Secret information- maybe less likely at beginning of careers. More likely coercion and/or inducements can persuade some to divulge increasingly sensitive information that they gain access to 5+ years into their careers.
Such information could include secrets originating from the US eg. via the Raytheon office at the shipyard and via Lockheed Martin's Adelaide office offsite at Mawson Lakes, UK and French via Naval Group (on and offsite at Keswick Adelaide).
Pete