US Wants Giant Radar In UK To Track Space Objects

The US wants to locate an enormous new radar system within the UK to trace objects in region .

The US Space Force is developing the worldwide system to spot potential “targets” up to 36,000km away, in areas of region where tons of military satellites are positioned.

Other sites would come with Texas and Australia.

The Ministry of Defence said the new radar capability has the potential to form space “safer and more secure”.

It comes amid growing concerns about congestion, competition and even an race in space.

Both the US and Britain have accused Russia and China of developing weapons which might be wont to remove satellites.

Last year alone quite 1,000 new satellites were embarked on space – including 10 by the US military.

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The plans to develop the region Advanced Radar Capability – or DARC – are being developed at the US Space and Missile Systems Center.

It was one among the sites visited by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and UK defence chiefs in the week on a visit to California. They also held discussions with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Lt Col Jack Walker of the US Space Force told the BBC the US was “in discussion” with the united kingdom about putting the radars “possibly in Scotland or further south”.

He said the location would house “anywhere from 10 to fifteen parabolic antenna (large satellite dishes) for tracking and 4 to 6 for transmitting” and canopy a neighborhood of about 1km square.

Each radar dish are going to be 15 metres in diameter.

Col Walker said the aim of the system would be to “detect and track targets which could potentially be threats to our high-value assets”.

“It might be from the Chinese, it might be from the Russians, it might be anti-satellite or it might be debris in space,” he said.

Dark corners of space
The US already operates an early warning system to detect ballistic missiles in space, which incorporates a service at RAF Fylindales in North Yorkshire .

But the radar systems at the secretive RAF base can only detect objects up to twenty ,000km (12,400 miles) away.

The new DARC system are going to be ready to see much further.

Col Walker says it’ll be ready to detect an object the dimensions of a football up to 36,000km (22,400 miles) away.

On the US visit, the UK’s chief of the air staff, Sir Michael Wigston, said “right now the united kingdom is concentrated on understanding what is going on on within the dark corners of space”.

He said the increasing congestion and competition in space “all point to wanting to rapidly build our understanding of what is going on”.

Sir Michael has predicted subsequent war might be won or lost in space.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the govt would be publishing an area strategy within the autumn.

He said space was under threat and therefore the UK needed to guard its key national infrastructure.

Mr Wallace said he didn’t think there was getting to be “moonraker and Star Wars lasers in space”.

The UK’s military doctrine wouldn’t be about “wrecking space but defending and protecting space”, he added.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “This new radar capability has the potential to form space safer and safer , helping to guard our satellite system by tracking and monitoring objects.

“We are exploring our potential partnership with the USA on DARC and discussions thus far are positive.”