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Plans to build a massive 20m-high space radar station in Pembrokeshire will be decided by Welsh government ministers.<\/b><\/p>\n
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) wants to build 27 radar dishes at Cawdor Barracks in Brawdy.<\/p>\n
The dishes, standing at 66ft (20m) high and 49ft (15m) wide, would form part of a trilateral AUKUS security partnership with the US and Australian governments.<\/p>\n
Fewer than a dozen planning applications, out of about 25,000 in Wales, are called in each year – a process which means ministers make the final decision not a council.<\/p>\n
Campaigners People Against Radar Campaign (PARC) – which claimed the project could allow US President Donald Trump to dominate space<\/a> from Wales – welcomed the move.<\/p>\n The UK government previously said the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability<\/a> (DARC) was vital to track objects in deep space and protect satellite and communication and navigation networks.<\/p>\n But PARC said it was “being developed for the US Space Force which was created under Donald Trump at a time when US military spending has doubled since he took office”.<\/p>\n “That is why DARC has been described as a significant escalation in the militarisation of space,” it said.<\/p>\n The Plaid Cymru-led Welsh government declined to comment on calling in the application.<\/p>\n