The Jindalee system is already up and running and covering the northern approaches to the continent, the Melbourne Age newspaper reported Saturday. The paper said U.S. scientists who had studied it were impressed by its range and capability and had confirmed that it could detect a missile launch far away in Asia.

Officials from the giant U.S. aircraft and weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin told The Age that the Australian system, officially known as the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN), would be a highly effective part of the global missile defence shield. They said it significantly increased the time available for a defence system to intercept missiles.

The scientists said Jindalee would be part of an electronic network, including spy satellites and yet-to-be built air warfare destroyers, able to pick up the launch of a missile and, by tracking it, work out its target. The ship or a land-based anti-missile system would then shoot the missile down.

Standard radar sends a signal along line of sight until it bounces off a target ship or aircraft. However, JORN bounces signals off the ionosphere, which lies above the stratosphere and extends about 600 miles above Earth. The signal then bounces down onto its target. In that way it can apparently pick up even sophisticated stealth bombers, which are virtually invisible to standard radar, The Age said.

In July 2004 Australia agreed to cooperate with the United States on missile defence and in early 2005, Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering III, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, visited Australia for talks with government and defence officials involved in the Jindalee project.

The Australian government of Prime Minister John Howard plans to spend tens of billions of dollars over the next decade to develop the sophisticated military technology needed to intercept missiles capable of carrying nuclear, chemical or biological warheads.

The Howard government plans to buy three air warfare destroyers, to be equipped with the Aegis missile control system.

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