Councillor seeks ‘assurances’ that coastal airfield is not being used to develop military drones
Dale Spridgeon, local democracy reporter
A councillor has called for assurances that a coastal airfield site is not being used for the development of drones for military purposes.
Councillor Beca Brown asked the question during Cyngor Gwynedd’s full council meeting in Caernarfon, on October 2.
She had raised the query about the Llanbedr site near Harlech, during a question and answer session, during the meeting held in the Dafydd Orwig council chamber.
The site first operated around 1941 as an RAF base and was home to a number of squadrons, during and after the Second World War.
It is thought to have closed and been decommissioned around 2004.
It would later be used for a variety of civil and commercial aviation activities, including pilot training, testing flight systems, and as an enterprise centre.
Drone testing and development
Cllr Brown had said: “it was International Day of Peace on September 21st – a day that gives the people of the world the opportunity to commit to creating a peaceful world and to reflect on how we could all contribute towards creating a culture of peace.
“With that in mind, I note that drone testing and development has been taking place at Llanbedr airfield in Gwynedd for over a decade, for a variety of purposes.
“Given the horrific effects of drones on civilians in wars, and given that we live in a world that feels increasingly unstable, can we be certain that the drones being developed at Llanbedr are not being used for military purposes?”
Assurances
Responding, Cllr Medwyn Hughes had told the meeting that the council had been in contact with the leasholders of the site, Snowdonia Aerospace LLP to “seek the assurances”.
Councillor Hughes said that Cyngor Gwynedd had been working with the leaseholders of the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre since the site had become part of the Snowdonia Enterprise Zone in 2011.
“The Centre offers a development space for different companies in the field of unmanned vehicles, satellites, and wider space technology,” he said.
“The Council has assisted them with projects that could lead to safeguarding and creating new employment opportunities in Llanbedr.
“They have recently received an £820,000 grant from the UK Space Agency to extend their research and testing facilities”.
He added that Cyngor Gwynedd was not currently supporting any projects or activities on the site.
“The Council has contacted Snowdonia Aerospace LLP, the leaseholders of the Site, to obtain assurances” that their customers were not developing drones for military purposes,” he said.
“Confirmation has been received from the Company that the site is only used by commercial companies.
“As they have agreed to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with their customers, they are not in a position to provide details of the operations of these companies.
“Nevertheless, the Company has confirmed that they have no planned military
drone operations with the Ministry of Defence at the site in Llanbedr”.
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Confirming they have no military drone operations planned with the MOD doesn’t mean they’re not building drones for military use.
What is wrong with developing military drones? Everyone else is doing it.
Pay attention to Ukraine.
They are leading the way.
We need this.
Pay attention to the flights over infrastructure in the EU from hostile operators in recent days. We are exposed.
Perhaps Cllr Brown would like to dispense with the military altogether: it’s not like there are any impending global threats to the UK are there?
Just another myopic local politician giving off hot air. She’d be up there with the first moaners if a Russian or Chinese drone turned up over her residence.
Wait until she finds out what RAF Valley have been up to…
MM on the inside track again… do tell. Not that new generation of UFO’s again?
BBC have it.
Do you recall a Welsh First World War Ace by the name of Wing Commander James Ira Thomas Jones DSO, MC, DFC and bar, MM of 74 sqn, (from 1992-2000 based at Valley)
The article fails to connect RAE Llanbedr’s 50 year postwar history as the UK’s foremost operator of target drones and drone technology…
A lost decade of drone operation and research, a failure of forward planning to go with a by-pass pulled at the last minute wasting a million or two.
For reasons Lee Waters needs to share with the public…
I have no issues with military drones being developed in Wales. Plaid cannot be supportive of Ukraine fight against Farage’s allies in the Kremlin and attack Trump for his indifference to Europe, while at the same time wanting some sort of pacifist neutrality for Wales that favours neither Russia or Ukraine.
I think Heath Robinson has taken over the place…
How many thousands of RAF and FAA aircrew have been trained over fifty years to shoot down enemy aircraft by chasing UAV Fireflies, Meteors and Jindiviks from RAE Llanbedr over the bay?
The worrying thing is that Cllr Brown might soon become an MS. Beyond what’s already been said in teh comments about the UK needing to develop drones for defence and future conflicts, there’s also an opportunity to do some basic research into what’s actually happening at the former military site (which gives her a clue) before making a public comment. it is hardly far from her electoral ward and I’m fairly sure the site is still open doors, so she could just drive up this evening and have a look around. She’s not the only one, but I strongly suspect… Read more »
The next Senedd session is almost guaranteed to be the lowest quality with 36 new talking heads plus all those Labour dropouts to be replaced by an assortment of Reform and other low calibre duds off closed lists. Good black comedy but the price will be high.
yep!
No way should this happen.Whats to say that Starmer won’t sell drones to the IDF.
Why ? Is this person not aware of what’s going on in the world , I don’t care if it doesn’t suit her ideology it is necessary to be prepared , it would do a fat lot of good if the government of the day said terribly sorry we didn’t develop any of this technology because it might have offended the local councillors.