Pine Gap a target as Ukraine invasion raises nuclear war risk, Australian defence expert warns

Australia should not feel its geographic distance from the epicentre of the conflict affords it any significant protection, Dibb argued.

Pine Gap is a highly secret US-Australian military installation near Alice Springs. It serves as a major hub for US global intelligence interception, and for satellite surveillance operations for military and nuclear missile threats in the region.

Regardless, Dibb argued, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was unlikely to be deposed as a result, but he would be a leader grown increasingly isolated, and the threat of nuclear escalation was real.

The comprehensive defeat of Russia in Ukraine would bring its own dangers, Dibb argued.

He said Putin was motivated by an irredentist desire to restore former Soviet glory and power.