New Zealand’s defence force says US Space Command has barred it from describing what its Auckland space-tracking hub has been doing, even as a military campaign the network supported enters the public record.
The hub is one of three global nodes in the Joint Commercial Operations network, which fuses commercial tracking data on rockets, satellites and debris. Auckland covers the Pacific third of the globe.
A refusal that keeps coming back
RNZ asked under the Official Information Act for activity reports from March through September, plus two years of records. The New Zealand Defence Force declined, saying it is not authorised to release network documentation on its own. It suggested the broadcaster try America’s Freedom of Information Act instead.
Electromagnetic warfare joins the mission
Earlier releases showed the Auckland hub tracking launches of Chinese military satellites and an Iranian weather and broadcasting pair lifted by Russia in February. Those 24 pages covered only a few days.
What has expanded is the network’s remit. Barbara Golf, who runs the joint operations cell, said US Central Command asked the Space Force to widen electromagnetic spectrum monitoring when Operation Epic Fury began on February 28. “We want more of that now in every band you can find,” she recalled being told.
The cell used the capability to locate sources of electronic attack on US systems, including Iranian jammers aimed at drones. Golf said the plan is to extend it across all six geographic combat commands within a year.
The force does not say whether Auckland took part in the Iran work, and has previously denied the hub moved into electromagnetic tracking.
The pattern that matters
A partner owns the ground segment. A US command owns the disclosure decision. That split leaves allied publics unable to audit what runs from their own soil.
