last wednesday, Mariano Lombardy, Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Connectivitythe dependent office of Agustín Rossi, head of the Cabinet of Ministers, signed Terms AT-2023-15-APN-SSTYCO#JGM0 and decided to cancel the “full authorization to LEO LABS”involving decisions final shutdown of British radar installed in Tolhuin, Tierra del Fuego province.

In 2022, the same undersecretary has granted a dangerous permit to install and operate the Earth Station in Banda S”, which is located north of the municipality Tolhuin. Satellite company LeoLabs chose Argentina to place its third radar in the southern hemisphere, which would allow it “more efficiently to track objects and monitor activity in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

The registration documentation that LeoLabs submitted for its registration with the Tierra del Fuego General Inspection of Justice provided the key to the rejection of the project.. The companies that make up LeoLabs are based in the UK and Ireland. The facts regarding the adverse impact on the policy of protecting state sovereignty regarding the Malvinas dispute were not known by the Tierra del Fuego government. There is no management that Governor Gustavo Melella cannot explain which should be corrected at the request of the Ministry of Defence.

minister Jorge Taiana and opposition lawmakers, including Senator Pablo Blanco, warned that Leo Labs’ activities could harm the country’s sovereign interests. Taiana, based on the technical report, considered and informed the Chief of Staff about it The presence of earth stations “breaches national security in that it allows the UK to monitor the activity of Argentine satellites, both civil and military, intercept data and observe ground or sea targets or detect aircraft”, which is “not in accordance with the National Defense Policy Directive”, issued by the President; moreover “it is impossible to ignore the geopolitical connotations of the installation of the AGSR Station by a company legally domiciled in the United Kingdom, as the United Kingdom maintains an illegal occupation of the Malvinas Islands, part of our national territory”.

It is known the facility was operating in passive mode, one would understand the scientific and civilian uses of these types of space sensors, but no electronic device that obtains information can fall beyond military dual use. Defense has a policy of deploying military facilities and sensors with projections to the South Atlantic and Antarctica.

The final milestone was the installation of an air defense and exploration radar on Trelew, which was a Westinghouse AN/TPS-43E mobile unit that was entered into the Air Force along with six other units between 1978 and 1980 that were modernized by Invap to extend their service life. 15 years and has solid state electronics and digital technology.