Newcastle Emlyn and Adpar / Castell Newydd Emlyn ac Adpar

The Welsh Assembly Government applied in March to the Civil Aviation Authority for its unbiased and impartial decision on whether to allow the testing of UAVs over West Wales, supposedly taking full account of the issues raised in the consultation carried out by WAG in Summer 2009. The decision is expected to take several months to determine.

However the Ministry of Defence can’t wait that long to begin trials of it’s Watchkeeper UAV programme. The CAA on March 29th 2010 imposed flying restrictions for 7 months on an area 6 nautical miles (6.9 miles) radius from West Wales Airport. An area of 150 sq miles.

Later this year, in order to facilitate flights between West Wales Airport and the Sennybridge military area, a further restricted flying corridor will be created.

Given that the CAA has now made its intentions clear, the struggle to stop the creation of the UAV testing zone is all but over. The campaign to make West Wales a “centre of excellence” for protest against military UAVs has begun.

RESTRICTION OF FLYING REGULATIONS – WEST WALES AIRPORT (ABERPORTH)
29 MARCH – 29 OCTOBER 2010

1. Introduction

1.1 Trial and demonstration flights by Unmanned Aircraft will take place at West Wales Airport during period 29 March to 29 October 2010. The Secretary of State for Transport has, therefore, deemed it necessary to introduce the following Restriction of Flying Regulations under Article 161 of the Air Navigation Order 2009 (military aircraft should comply with JSP552 201.135.9):

a. West Wales Airport – Subject to paragraph b, between 0700 and 1700 on each day from Monday to Friday inclusive, beginning with 29 March to 29 October 2010, no aircraft is to fly below 5000 ft amsl within the area of a circle having a radius of 6 nm whose centre 520653N 0043334W;

b. Paragraph a, does not apply to:

i. any aircraft flying with the permission of the Airport Manager West Wales Airport – call ATC on 122.150 MHz;

ii. any aircraft in the service of the Chief Officer of Police for Dyfed-Powys Police; and

iii. any aircraft in the service of HM Coastguard.

2. It is proposed to introduce a further Restricted Area (Temporary) (RA(T)) later in 2010 for Unmanned Aircraft testing and evaluation. This second RA(T) will be in the form of a corridor and will provide a link between EG D210 (Aberporth) and EG D203 (Sennybridge). The lower vertical extent of this RA(T) is anticipated to be FL 80, with an anticipated highest upper limit of FL 170. Full details of this RA(T) will be promulgated by Mauve AIC and NOTAM.

3. Details of Restricted Airspace feature in the daily AIS Information Line message (0500-354802) and will be included on the Pre-flight Information Bulletins (PIB) through the AIS Web site at http://www.ais.org.uk.

Click map for larger version

The document can be downloaded as a PDF here

Nearly all politicians in west Wales either support the Parc Aberporth UAV testing zone without question; support it for non-military use only (but still fail to condemn it even though its use for the foreseeable future will be overwhelmingly military); or support it for civilian and “defensive” military use only.

Those of us against military use entirely would argue that locating people with a UAV in order that they can be killed with a bomb dropped by a war plane, rather blurs the offensive/defensive distinction. For those politicians who still think they know which is which, this report from www.uavtrainingconf.com should finally disabuse them.

The UK could integrate a light-weight weapon with its Thales UK/Elbit Systems Watchkeeper 450 tactical unmanned air vehicles, operations of which should begin from late next year.

“We are conducting analysis to investigate the contribution that an armed Watchkeeper UAV system could make in current and future operations,”

confirms minister for international defence and security Baroness Taylor.

Taylor’s comment represents the first time that the MoD has acknowledged the possibility of arming the British Army’s future WK450 air vehicles. One likely candidate is Thales Air Systems’ lightweight multirole missile (LMM), which has previously been shown at exhibitions with a full-scale model of the WK450.

WK450 air vehicle Flight-test activities should start before year-end at the ParcAberporth UAV centre of excellence in west Wales. The Royal Air Force already operates General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper UAVs carrying Raytheon GBU-12 Paveway II precision-guided bombs and Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles.

So “Watchkeeper” becomes “Watchkiller”. What rationale will they invent now in order to continue supporting Parc Aberporth?

Prospective MPs seated at the Hustings either side of the chairman

Aberystwyth Peace & Justice Network are holding a Ceredigion constituency
General Election Peace and Justice Hustings at 7.30pm on Thursday 25 March, in the Morlan Centre, Queen Street, Aberystwyth

Prospective MPs at the Hustings

You can download a poster for the event to print and display here

All candidates for the Ceredigion seat in Parliament will be answering questions from the public at a PEACE AND JUSTICE HUSTINGS,

The candidates are: Richard Boudier (Labour), Steve Evetts (Conservative) Penri James (Plaid Cymru), Leila Kirsch (Greens) and Mark Williams (Lib Dem).

The meeting will be briefly addressed by representatives of Bro Emlyn Peace and Justice Group (from the Newcastle Emlyn area), and Actyma (Aberporth) who are campaigning against the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or drones) which are being tested at Aberporth.

A spokesperson for Aberystwyth Peace and Justice Network commented:

‘There are many pressing issues relating to peace and justice that affect the people of Ceredigion and we are really pleased that all the candidates have agreed to attend the meeting.

‘The meeting is an ideal opportunity for local people to find out where the candidates stand on everything from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to questions of international poverty and fair trade.’

Contact Aberystwyth Peace & Justice Network on 07891318805

APJN is a local organisation that campaigns to promote peaceful and just solutions to many of the most pressing and difficult of the issues facing people in Wales and internationally.

by Angharad Mair

Article first appeared in Golwg Magazine in January 2010

John Pilger is one of the world’s best journalists. He says “It is too easy for western journalists to follow a government agenda that states which oppressors are good and which are bad, and that presents ‘our’ policies, as the harmless ones, even though the opposite is usually true”

In December 2009, in an article in the New Statesman, under the heading ‘Normalising the crime of the century’, he said that the purpose of the Chilcot Enquiry was to normalise an epic transgression. And that when Tony Blair would make his appearance in January, he would play his part to ‘loathsome perfection’.

And his prophecy was of course correct. There weren’t any scandals that had been hidden until now, all questions were answered, no veering from the usual self-righteous path, and most importantly of all, there was not even an admission of regret, not to mention an apology to the families whose loved ones had died. And still, in Iraq, the confusion continues, as does the fighting in Afghanistan.

The work of developing WMDs ( similar to the ones that Saddam supposedly had) also continues, in West Wales. As Tony Blair was busy rehearsing his overly-genuine answers, the Welsh Assembly Government was quietly publishing its response to the consultation that would permit Uavs to be developed and tested in the sky above Ceredigion.

And yes, without paying much heed to the numerous worries expressed, they have approved the application to allow these vile military weapons to be tested over an area of 600 square miles, over the heads of 50,000 Welsh inhabitants, from Aberporth to Mynydd Epynt.

Exactly 70 years since the War Office stole 54 Welsh homes, closed the primary school, the church, and the pub on Epynt, it is unbelievable that our very own devolved government has decided that the theft of land is not enough, and that our sky has to militarised as well.

Apart from Adam Price (who was truly excellent, by the way, when asked on Sky News, to analyse Tony Blair’s boldness), none of the other 12 Assembly members, or any member of Parliament that represents the area in question, has opposed the plan. Worse still, they support it.

Why? In the face of the Chilcot Enquiry, you would expect politicians to be more careful when agreeing to military work. Surely, there must be many politicians who deeply regret by now, their agreeing to the war in Iraq, with cowardly non-questioning acceptance.

Perhaps the questions to ask are these: if our politicians truly believe in the virtues of testing these dangerous machines over West Wales, then why don’t they insist on being given the praise for the development? Why are they so taciturn? Why isn’t the story being highlighted in the press?

This brings me back to John Pilger’s point. Saddam Hussein did not possess WMDs, but the threat of the possibility that he could develop them was sufficient reason to go to war. But we are supposed to believe that the work of developing WMDs, similar to Saddam’s, in Ceredigion, is just and lawful. Yes, it is time for us all to start asking questions.

Selex Galileo, the Italian arms manufacturer may move operations from Parc Aberporth.

Flight Global, the aviation website reported yesterday 2nd February 2010 (Half way down the page).

Maybe Selex Gailieo had decided that the risk of one of it’s planes dropping out of the sky onto a west Wales town (remember 2 crash landed in 2009) is just too high. It would be a PR disaster for the company which would be forever linked with UAV unreliability.

Watch out for financial inducements from the Welsh Assembly Government desperate to save face. How big will WAGs sweeteners to Selex need to be to keep them at Parc Aberporth? One million, two million? No rent for a year and free pasta?