It was once just a sleepy little naval base on the outskirts of Canberra.
But those huge steel towers and high voltage transmission lines which have sprung up along Canberra Avenue indicates how HMAS Harman is poised to play a much more significant role in uploading and downloading information for the Australian Defence Forces into the future.
Back in 2022, a $116 million redevelopment plan was drawn up for the base, which will play an increasing role in communications and logistics, known in Defence-speak as a Naval Communications Area Master Station or NAVCAMSAUS.
The key to it is a new data project, combined with a new administration and command facility.
Construction has started and is expected to be finished late next year.
Harman has been a tired and neglected RAN base for a very long time.
It was first established in 1939 as a wireless and transmission base. Many of the buildings are riddled with asbestos and will require extensive remediation. Two of the existing buildings will be demolished completely.
As expected, the ADF is remaining tight-lipped about the redevelopment's capabilities.
Official documentation says: "The aim of the project is to deliver fit-for-purpose facilities and infrastructure at HMAS Harman that will support essential Defence activities, including administrative and personnel functions to support the Australian Defence Force."
But the size of the fresh power demand by the base is significant.
Power coming into the base will triple from the current 10.7 megavolt-amperes (MVA) to "over 30" MVA, according to official documents.
Defence will only state: "New electricity transmission lines being delivered in the ACT will help meet the future electricity demand for HMAS Harman."
Meanwhile, Evoenergy will only state that Defence is a "customer" and it is providing power and infrastructure "to meet Defence's requirements".
Data demands power - and there will be a huge amount of extra data being fed into Harman in the coming years. The Harman data room will have both air and water cooling - 40,000 rooftop litres of it - to maintain critical operations.
Data-gathering is now a major part of an overall Defence capability and many of the new assets planned for the ADF will gather that information and use it in real time, with command centres like the JOC HQ near Bungendore pooling all the information gathered by the various services and providing an overall "picture" of operations.
The Navy's new undersea support vessel ADV Guidance, which was bought from Norway last year, is already running trials of undersea surveillance systems. These systems are designed to detect underwater drones and crewed submarines.
