What is so amazing about this programme is that it lays the whole word bare. For example, in the days when I used to have access to massive MOD databases, there were many areas in the UK which were subject to secrecy and restrictions. Compounds which didn’t show up on any maps and areas where it was illegal to fly over. Every now and then you might see these places and not recognize them for what they are “Work Unit Only” on a motorway sign is usually a good clue that there might be something interesting off the slip-road.

But Google Earth doesn’t seem to give a fig about all that. Take the image above. It’s just a random shot from the online image bank. One that anyone could find if they knew where to look. You don’t have to be Will Smith, or crack into any secret Pentagon Mainframe.

And why should you? It’s just a building, right?

Exactly. Except that if I told you where this building was, or what the people who work there do for a living, I’d probably get into trouble.

So what’s all the fuss about? Well, I can’t help but wonder why there isn’t an awful lot more fuss about Google. Earth. It’s truly remarkable, because it lays the whole world completely bare, showing no respect to boundaries and domestic secrecy. We might say, for example, that it’s only understandable that the USA would want to publish highy accurate imagery of Russian Missile bases online, but it just shows you how much the world has changed that this sort of thing is tolerated.

The two photos above were found in relatively little time after looking up military airports on the web. I’ll admit that my training as a photo interpreter helped me to know which tell-tale signs to look out for when locating these bases, but it ‘s still completely dumbfounding that information such as this which would certainly have been classified as Top Secret just ten years ago, is available to anyone who bothers to look.

The first of these images shows a base for mobile nuclear missile launchers.. As you can imagine, large trucks with very long nukes on their backs don’t have very narrow turning circles, which is why there are those sweeping corners on the tracks.

Do you see all those garages? You see, the number of launchers at any given station is a closely guarded secret. There may only be one launch vehicle in the whole place, but it will be moved, from day to day, to confuse western intelligence analysts into having no idea how many they really have. Otherwise, give-away signs such as footprints in snow or the accumulation of old oil stains near one hangar would make it obvious. It’s an odd game of cat-and-mouse that could well still be going on today, as far as I know. (Those paths still look relatively well used.)

Less well cared for, however, is the base on the other image. This is a Siberian missile base, which looks like it could use some urgent attention. Can you see the missiles, sat out in the sun? There are launch canisters lying around, while the vehicles are slowly rusting away at the servicing bays. When you consider that this place is just a couple of miles from the local village, it really sends a shiver down the spine.

When I was in Iraq I would have given my back teeth for this overhead imagery of Basrah. The data we had at the time was all in black and white, and the resolution wasn’t nearly this clear. Members of the ISG (Iraq Survey Group) would be asking me to come up with aerial maps as good as I could get them so that they could go and inspect from WMD, but I can’t help thinking that if the intelligence available to us had been this comprehensive at the time it would have saved us a lot of red faces.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure that the stuff the military has today is streets ahead of what we used to deal with. To illustrate the point, ten years ago we had airbourne camera platforms which could read the time from Big Ben while flying over the Isle of Wight. I think it’s probably safe to assume they’ve moved on from that by now. Maybe the pilots even have their own wrist watches. Who knows?

And the other big thing that the military have which Google Earth lacks is timeliness. Satellite imagery isn’t much use to the intelligence services if it’s a year old. You may as well use a painting if it’s that out of date. But for a long retired sneaky-beaky-boy, you can’t really beat the sheer fascination and wonderment of looking down over far off streets and buildings, and wondering what secrets you’re going to turn up next.