United States Military Bases

There are two U.S. military bases in N.Z. The largest is at Harewood Airport, Christchurch, where under the cover of the U.S. Antarctic Research Programme, the military maintains a general purpose Naval depot, an Air Force Military Airlift Command Base, and a Naval Communications Unit (part of which is situated at RNZAF base, Weedons). At Mt John the U.S. Air Force's Satellite Tracking Station pinpoints the position of enemy satellites so that in the event of nuclear war the U.S. Aerospace Defence Command can shoot them down. The operations base for Mt John is at Washdyke, near Timaru.