The US Space Force want to build three huge radar bases around the world as part of a global system to track objects in deep space. Part of the AUKUS security pact between the US, UK and Australia the radars are to be located in Texas, Australia and Britain. The location of the British site has been disclosed as Cawdor Barracks near Brawdy, just outside the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. If developed the site would include a total of 21 receiving antenna dishes about 60ft (20m) high and 50ft (15m) in diameter and 6 transmitting dishes of the same size, an operations building and perimeter and security fencing.
The powerful radar would be part of a new ‘Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability’ (DARC) system, an enhancement to US Space Surveillance Network (SSN) which include the pyramid shaped radar at Fylingdales in North Yorkshire. DARC will be able to ‘see’ much further into space than Fylingdales and could reportedly detect an object the size of a football up to 36,000 km away. The radar would be used to “detect, track, identify and characterize objects” in Geosynchronous orbit, at 22,000 miles (36,000 km) above the Earth, where a lot of military surveillance and communications satellites are stationed, and would contribute to the US Space Domain Awareness (SDA) programme.
Space Domain Awareness
SDA data comes from a variety of space sensors and ground-based telescopes and radars and is combined with intelligence sources to produce a picture of the space environment. It enables the military to monitor the activities of others in space and can provide data for the targeting of anti-satellite systems. The war in Ukraine has shown how important space resources are to the military and US Space Command stated its aim of dominating and controlling space in its 1997 ‘Vision for 2020’. But domination of a region requires an ability to monitor everything that goes on there, and that is where SDA comes in.
U.S. Force is supported by 16 mission Delta or organisational units. One of these is a unit called Space Delta 2 which concerns Space Domain Awareness and Space Battle Management. Space Domain Awareness is essentially detecting and keeping track of objects in orbit to be able to predict where they will be at any particular time. This sounds like it may be ok until you link it with the other role of Space Battle Management. It will be another tool that the US Space Force has for planning and executing a war in outer space.
The US is saying that its dominance in space is under threat and in May, Brig Gen Jesse Morehouse from US Space Command was reported as saying that Russian aggression and China’s vision to become the dominant space power by mid-century, had left the US with “no choice” but to prepare for orbital skirmishes, “the United States of America is ready to fight tonight in space if we have to.”
If DARC is sited at Bawdy, the UK government will be ensuring that the people of Wales become part of any future war in space.
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A video about DARC and the US military’s control of the ‘space domain’ created by Paul Mobbs in 2021 – can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KhkdjqSNic
PARC against DARC - PARC (Pembrokeshire Against Radar Campaign) was originally set up back in the nineties when the US military attempted to build a radar station at the same location in Pembrokeshire. A huge and successful campaign led to Margaret Thatcher having to personally announce cancellation of the project and the local sitting Conservative MP lose his seat. Now it is campaigning to stop DARC -PARC’s Mission Statement can be viewed here.
