The new Labour government has shown its commitment to US military plans to build a new advanced radar complex for space warfighting in West Wales by confirming that it intends to continue with plans for the project which were first unveiled by the former Conservative government.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced that it will be arranging public meetings in communities near Cawdor Barracks in north Pembrokeshire, where it hopes to build the new Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC). The DARC radar in Pembrokeshire will be one of a network of three ground-based radars in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom which will allow the US Space Force to detect, track and identify satellites, space debris, and other objects in orbit around Earth – an essential first step in being able to target and destroy enemy satellites during wartime. DARC radar stations are also planned for construction at Ningaloo in the remote north west of Australia and an as yet undisclosed site in Texas, USA. The Ministry of Defence has also identified a reserve site in West Freugh in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland should it not prove possible to proceed with building at Cawdor Barracks. Between them the three sites in the US, Australia and the UK will provide full coverage for all aspects of earth orbit, and all are intended to be in operation by the end of the 2020s.
Enabling space warfare
The US and its allies already have sensor systems which are able to track objects in earth orbit, including systems at RAF Fylingdales in north Yorkshire. US Space Force says that DARC will provide higher sensitivity, better accuracy, increased capacity and more agile tracking than current radar systems, and will not be limited by poor weather and daylight.
Information about DARC first entered the public domain in 2016, when US Air Force budget appropriations documents first mentioned the project. Now led by US Space Force, the project has been accelerated through the AUKUS military agreement between the US, Australia and the UK and is to be delivered under the auspices of a trilateral memorandum of understanding between the three nations which was signed in September 2023.
The DARC site at Cawdor Barracks is intended to consist of 27 radar dishes - 21 receivers and 6 transmitters – spread out over an area of one square kilometre to improve signal reception. Local opponents to the scheme are concerned about the impacts the radar system will have on the local tourism-based economy, the environment, and the health of local residents. The array of dishes is likely to be visually intrusive and, according to campaign group PARC Against DARC, "likely produce radiation levels five times greater than broadcast antennae proven to double cancer rates in surrounding populations." The facility will be located inside the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and residents are also worried it will impact upon tourism and house prices. PARC point out that Stantec and Ove Arup, the companies that prepared environmental statements documenting the impact of the development, have both faced charges of negligence in Court and that the environmental statements were prepared by non-local authors who do not know the area, have little understanding of locally significant species and habitat, and have underplayed the impacts.
Artist illustration of the Deep-Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC). Credit: Northrop Grumman.
Vague and unverifiable justifications
Justifications for the DARC development put forward by MoD are vague and unverifiable and based around half-truths and PR spin. MoD claims “the initiative will secure long-term jobs and help protect essential satellite communication and navigation networks”. It will support land, air, and maritime forces, “as well as protecting critical infrastructure and benefitting domestic construction and space industries”. DARC will play a “crucial role” in AUKUS nations’ ability to “support safety and security in the Indo-Pacific and the rest of the world”. This will be done through tracking space objects in order to develop 'space domain awareness' that, the three partner nations claim, will deter nations from undertaking activities that are against their interests.
Independent analyst Paul Mobbs has explained that the real purpose of DARC is to allow space warfighting. It is absurd to pretend that tracking objects in space can, on its own, 'keep space safe' and deter hostile activity. As the US Space Force has stated in other documents, the purpose of DARC is to “detect, maintain custody, and track objects in orbit to ensure space mission force is able to defeat a thinking adversary in a complex multi-domain battlespace”. During wartime DARC would identify and track enemy satellites in space which would then be destroyed using air, ship, or possibly even satellite-launched weapons. Ironically, this would be likely to generate debris which, far from keeping space safe, would pose a significant threat to other satellites and space assets. The US and its allies, self-proclaimed and self-appointed police claiming to ensure that “space remains safe, sustainable and accessible to all”, have consistently vetoed discussions at the United Nations on a binding international treaty to prevent treaty to prevent the deployment of weapons in outer space and prevent an arms race in outer space.
The MoD has estimated that construction of the DARC radar at Cawdor Barracks will create 100 jobs, but critics point out that there will be a net loss of jobs as 400 jobs are being lost in the area by plans to close the barracks in their current role. It is also unclear how many of the new jobs at DARC will be assigned to US forces personnel and how many will be open to the local community. Australia's contribution to the DARC program is estimated by ABC News to be nearly Aus$ 2 billion (£1 billion) over more than 20 years. While UK costs have not been published, they can be expected to be of a similar order of magnitude – a high price to pay for 100 jobs. Local campaigners point to the Brawdy Business Park as an alternative model for job creation in the area. Brawdy Business Park was created when the US Navy left their base at Brawdy in Pemrokeshire at the end of the 1990s, and has had a proven impact in generating jobs in the tourism and internet sectors.
Local opposition
Proposals to build the DARC radar in West Wales have already met intense opposition. Plans to build a similar military radar array in Pembrokeshire in the 1990s were defeated by Pembrokeshire Against the Radar Campaign (PARC), and PARC has now been relaunched as the 'PARC Against DARC' campaign. PARC Against DARC launched its new campaign with one of the biggest public meetings ever seen in rural Pembrokeshire and has already gathered over 15,000 signatures against the radar and assembled an impressive list of supporting organisations from across the political and business spectrum. PARC Against DARC now plans to organise its first protests at the forthcoming public meetings which MoD has organised in Pembrokeshire to promote construction of the radar.
There is, of course, no pretence that public opinion will be taken into account in decision making over the DARC project. The key decisions have already been made at the highest political levels by generals and ministers who are not remotely interested in what local folk in Pembrokeshire think. The US Department of Defense has already awarded a US$ 200 million contract to Northrop Grumman for the design, integration, and testing of the DARC radar system for the Pembrokeshire site.
The local public events which MoD is organising in Pembrokeshire in September are described as 'engagement' sessions rather than consultation. They will be an opportunity for MoD to try to get local politicians, journalists, and opinion-formers onside, and in particular to soft-soap planning officers and councillors from Pembrokeshire County Council, who will be required to grant planning permission for the proposal. Doubtless these individuals will be told behind closed doors in the most solemn tones by grave-faced MoD staff that the project is of vital military importance and absolutely essential to the national interest, and that they have a key role to play in delivering it. There will perhaps also be hints – not threats, of course – that it is an expensive matter for a local council to fight a planning appeal in the event that the DARC application is turned down, and that acceptance of the project might help the government find ways of providing extra support to the region.
PARC Against DARC will need all the help they can get to stop the MoD's space war radar. Here's how you can support them – you don't need to live in Wales to help!
Watch PARC's campaign video.
Sign the petition opposing the radar development.
Donate to the Crowdfunder appeal.
Join the demonstrations:
Friday 13 September, 4 pm, Solva Memorial Hall
Saturday 14 September, 10 am, St Davids City Hall
Wednesday 9 October, Noon, Ministry of Defence London.
