The controversy over ‘DARC’ in Wales has finally hit the Senedd

Campaigners at PARC Against DARC, which launched in May 2024 to block the proposed US military DARC radars at Brawdy in Pembrokeshire say it’s only a matter of time until the proposed radars receive national scrutiny. This follows Cefin Campbell MS submitting a Statement of Opinion on DARC radar in the Senedd.

The move comes after a vote at Plaid Cymru’s national conference last October where the Party unanimously backed a motion to oppose DARC and support the campaign to halt its development.

Statement of Opinion tabled in the Senedd to oppose DARC Radar

Plaid Cymru’s Cefin Campbell who tabled the Statement of Opinion is one of four regional MSs representing Mid and West Wales. He said:

Plaid Cymru has a long and honourable history of promoting peace around the globe and opposing militarism at every level. We cannot therefore support the construction of DARC and give space to American militarism on our land.

Furthermore, no assessment at all has been completed on its impact on the community in terms of tourism, health, or the economy, and the assumption is that it will be harmful on each count.

Statements of Opinion are a mechanism within the Senedd by which elected MSs can register their concerns on particular issues as a means to gauge feeling from other Senedd Members who can then support or oppose the statements. This is a similar mechanism to ‘Early Day Motions’ which are used in Westminster and are considered to be an effective way to raise awareness over certain issues with an aim of escalating to plenary debates within the Senedd chamber later on.

PARC Against DARC say they worked closely with Cefin Campbell, and other MS’s to draft the Statement of Opinion which reads:

This Senedd

1. Notes:

a) the opposition by Pembrokeshire residents to the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) proposal by the Ministry of Defence;

b) concerns regarding the visual and tourism impact of 27 large radar dishes in view of a coastal national park of significant UK importance and national heritage in nearby St David’s;

c) concerns regarding unaddressed health risks and regional security implications; and

d) the petition of 16,000 signatures against the proposal.

2. Calls on the Welsh Government to commission an authoritative impact assessment of the plan to better inform residents and decision-makers

DARC Radar would give Trump the keys to Pembrokeshire to control space

The campaign, which has asserted its view that the proposed 27 dish radar array would give Donald Trump and the US the ability to militarily dominate all of space from Pembrokeshire and two other proposed sites located in Australia and the US, won a campaign in the 1990s to fight off a very similar proposal.

A spokesperson told the Canary:

The successful campaign in the 90’s became an issue of national and international importance which was debated in UK parliament and subsequently cancelled very publicly by the then Conservative government. We fully expect the DARC radar proposal to receive the same level of national scrutiny this time round and we believe it’s only a matter of time before decision makers are forced to U-turn on this very unpopular proposal.

With Trump now at the helm in the US, which is terrifying enough in itself, who in their right mind would support giving over a precious piece of Pembrokeshire’s landscape to the US military so that Trump, along with his incoherent foreign policies would be able to control space from here?! Especially when you consider that DARC directly breaches several international treaties which dictate that space must be kept for peace and never used for military purposes

With other local infrastructure projects currently at pre-planning stages which campaigners assert DARC would be reliant on, they also believe that the planning application for DARC should include these as part of the wider application, inline with current planning legislation and regulations.

These include the new pylons DARC would need, the proposed Newgale bypass and a data Cable which Vodafone hopes to lay from Ireland to Brawdy. “Given that the MOD admits there would be hundreds of lorries per day needed to construct DARC” say campaigners, “it is very apparent to everyone concerned that DARC would not be viable without the new road and the other elements of additional infrastructure, therefore the MOD should be forced to adhere to current planning law and apply for them all at once”.

DARC set to become a ‘pivotal issue’ in 2026 Senedd Elections

On Wednesday 12 Feburary, Roy Jones, a leading activist of PARC Against DARC travelled to Cardiff Bay to hand deliver letters to all 60 Members of the Senedd. The letters raise multiple concerns about DARC as well as imploring the MS’s to support Cefin Campbell’s Statement of Opinion and to meet with the Campaign at an event they will be hosting at the Senedd on 5 March.

The campaign has urged anyone with concerns about DARC to write to their local and regional MS’s asking them to support the Statement of Opinion. The group said:

With the 2026 Senedd elections also seeing an increase in the number of MS’s from 60 to 96 as well as a move to proportional representation across the board, we are sure that this will become a pivotal issue as the candidates and parties begin vying for votes in the build up to the 2026 elections. Our 16,000 strong petition demonstrates how unpopular DARC already is among locals and we believe that as awareness grows so will the pressure for candidates to join with public opinion and stand up against DARC.

The campaign says it also has its sights set on similar processes in Westminster and are already receiving help from several MPs:

A matter of such hugely significant national interest cannot be decided by a few planning officials at PCC [Pembrokeshire County Council] and must therefore be escalated to the appropriate levels of government for real scrutiny and thorough investigation.

Campaigners set to lobby Senedd Members

On Wednesday 5 March as part of the United Nations international day of disarmament and non-proliferation awareness, with Heddwch ar Waith a Welsh Peace network, PARC Against DARC, along with other campaigns such as CND Cymru, Stop the War, and the Peace Pledge Union will be hosting presentations in the Peirhead building at the Senedd including a lunchtime session where all MS’s will be invited to come along and learn more about the dangers of the DARC proposal and the growing levels of militarism in Wales. Heledd Fychan MS will sponsor the day’s proceedings.

Featured image via the Canary