Welsh radar site to 'protect Britain from deep space warfare'

Controversial plans for a deep space radar site in Wales have been given the go ahead despite bitter opposition from local campaigners and peace activists.

Ministers said the plans are crucial as long-term defence threats in deep space but opponents told The Guardian that it is "one of the most health-hazardous, tourism-ruining, skyline-blighting military installations ever proposed anywhere in the UK".

'Emerging warfare frontier'

The Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability, also known as Darc, will be developed at Cawdor barracks in south-west Wales by the Ministry of Defence. Some 27 radar dishes are planned, each of them 20 metres high.

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They are part of the Aukus defence partnership between the UK, US and Australia. A network of ground-based radars will be set up in all three countries designed to monitor, track and identify objects as small as a football up to 22,000 miles (36,000km) away from Earth.

Space plays "a crucial role in our daily lives" in everything from our mobile phones to banking services", said John Healey, the UK Defence Secretary, and it's also used by UK defence to "conduct vital tasks such as supporting military operations, navigating forces and gathering intelligence".

"Deep space" is the "vast, unexplored region of space that extends beyond our Moon, to Mars and across our solar system", said Explore Deep Space. It is also "an emerging frontier for warfare" in a world that is "increasingly dependent on satellite technology", said The Guardian.

Dr Mark Hilborne, who leads the space security research group at King's College London, told the paper that "there is a concern about increasing military activity and increasing belligerence in space", so "we need more eyes on the sky".

China spent around £11.2billion on its "ambitious space programme" in 2023, reported The Sun. Gen. Stephen Whiting of US Space Command claimed that Beijing has "built a kill web over the Pacific Ocean to find, fix, track and, yes, target United States and allied military capabilities".

'Star Wars agenda'

Peace campaigners have "united" to condemn the Ministry of Defence's decision, reported the Morning Star.  The plan will "blight" Pembrokeshire's National Park, "negatively impact the vital tourism industry", and "put Wales at the heart of a dangerous military space race", said a spokesperson for Stop the War Cymru.

The "real aim" of the project, he said, is "the furtherance of US military dominance of space and the development of a dangerous Star Wars agenda".

When the then-US President Ronald Reagan unveiled plans in March 1983 to combat nuclear war in space, the project became known as "Star Wars", said the BBC. Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative proposed a defensive shield, using laser or particle beam technology to "intercept and destroy" incoming missiles as they travelled through the stars. The project was opposed by the Soviet Union and by peace campaigners around the globe.

The local opposition to the new plan, centred in a movement called Parc Against Darc, is also reminiscent of the past. There was a "historical campaign" from 1990, said Interesting Engineering, when a similar radar installation was halted after "public outcry" led to its cancellation by then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher.