Eluned Morgan calls to halt the AUKUS defence project
Eluned Morgan calls to halt the AUKUS defence project proposed in her constituency when the USA is proving to be such an unreliable ally.
Eluned Morgan, First Minister of Wales & Labour candidate for Ceredigion Penfro, has called to halt the AUKUS defence project as the Ministry of Defence pushes forward with proposals to develop the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability programme based in the Welsh Labour leader’s constituency. The proposal is a joint UK, US and Australia project which the First Minister claims should be paused at a time when the USA is proving to be such an unreliable ally.
Eluned Morgan, First Minister of Wales & Labour candidate for Ceredigion Penfro, has called to halt the AUKUS defence project as the Ministry of Defence pushes forward with proposals to develop the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability programme based in the Welsh Labour leader’s constituency. The proposal is a joint UK, US and Australia project which the First Minister claims should be paused at a time when the USA is proving to be such an unreliable ally.
The proposal will soon be put forward by the MOD for planning permission to develop the project at the Cawdor Barracks - Brawdy, Pembrokeshire at the heart of Eluned's constituency. The proposal would include hosting a network of ground based radars which would track objects in high Earth orbit. It would use 27 large parabolic dishes to monitor satellites and debris.
The Pembrokeshire base would be one of three locations – the others in the USA and Australia.
Eluned, who lives in St David’s, represents the area where the base is located and hopes to be re-elected as Senedd Member and First Minister in next month’s Senedd Elections said :
“ Trump’s hostility towards the UK and verbal attacks on our nation in the light of the Prime Minister’s refusal to give the US President support in the attack on Iran should lead us to pause our involvement in this proposal. His threats to annihilate the Iranian civilisation reached a new low recently and we should not be associating ourselves with such an unreliable partner who threatened war crimes on civilians, and have insulted UK armed forces in terms of their commitment to fight in Afghanistan.”
The pre-application consultation has recently ended, and the expectation is that the MOD would lodge a formal planning application with Pembrokeshire County Council thereafter.