Global Courant
The installation of a radar in Tierra del Fuego set off the alarms of a possible geopolitical conflict and led to the suspension of a contract that the Government itself had approved and concluded months before. Now, the matter adds another chapter after the dissemination of the first photos of the device that was in operation for months, amid official secrecy.
Another piece of information that adds to the controversy: despite the fact that in the first instance the focus was placed on the investment of an American company in the south of the country, in the last hours it was learned that the capital of Leolabs that formed the Argentine headquarters of the company They are British, as denounced by a radical Fuegian senator.
In March of this year, the US ambassador Marc Stanley had highlighted the agreement that would allow Leolabs Space to add a radar to its network that already has similar facilities in the United States, Costa Rica, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand. So far, only a commercial operation that the US diplomatic headquarters and the Argentine government celebrated.
But the project did not take long to generate resistance, especially due to the secrecy in which it was launched.
The radar installed by the American company with British capital.
According to the act to which Clarín had access, the companies Leolabs Space Holdins Limited, incorporated in Ireland, and Leolabs Limited, based in London, both legally represented by Pablo Renán Bilbao, created the limited liability company Leolabs Argentina with which the Government he signed the agreement eight months later.
In addition, the company’s board includes María Victoria Cerone, who is a lawyer, and Diego Alberto Mancini Loiácono, a producer of musical shows.
In a short time and with a million-dollar investment, the multinational with British capital built the radar, which was installed in the El Relincho ranch, in Tolhuin, the third most important city in Tierra del Fuego, located in the center of the island.
This information, which became public shortly after the request for information presented by the Fuegian senator of Together for Change, Pablo Blanco, led to the Defense Minister, Jorge Taiana, asking the Cabinet Office to suspend the contract.
The map of Leolabs radars in the world.
It was on November 15, 2022 that the Government, through the Undersecretary of Telecommunications and Connectivity, authorized Leolabs Argentina “on a precarious basis” to put into operation “an Earth Station in Band S” that would have the objective of “tracking and monitoring “space debris.
“We all know that finding space debris is not the only function that a radar can perform,” he told Clarín Blanco, who in turn questioned the silence of the Government of Tierra del Fuego and Governor Gustavo Melella.
The radical legislator warned that it is inadmissible for the Government to have accepted an agreement like this with a British company: “Powers that could severely affect our sovereignty should not be ceded to a company from the same country that usurps our Malvinas,” he insisted.
In addition, he stressed that it is “a very important issue for national security in such a strategic area worldwide and sensitive for Argentine sovereign interests” and that it should have been dealt with in Congress.
The articles of incorporation of Leolabs Argentina confirming that the capitals are British.
The Argentine branch of the British company had taken a few months to start up the radar, which at the time the contract was suspended was already operating on a trial basis.
Leolabs applied to the Argentine government for the permits shortly after incorporating the company in the country and obtained them eight months later, in November.
On June 29, hours after Clarín announced the government’s decision to suspend the contract, officials from the Directorate of Satellite Affairs of the Undersecretary of Telecommunications and Connectivity carried out an inspection of the place where the radar was built.
The first photos of the radar installed in Tierra del Fuego.
In the tour of the place they found that the radar was already working, although at that moment “in RF OFF mode”.
“At the time of its opening, the Radar was in RF OFF mode, and the rest of the associated equipment, in standby mode. The company provided us with an Online status of activity report of the different LEOLABS radars in the world , showing that it is out of service and not registering activity,” says the text, to which Clarín had access, which gives details of the technical inspection carried out by two officials of the Directorate of Satellite Affairs of the Undersecretary of Telecommunications and Connectivity.
In the resolution with which the Government allowed Leolabs to install the radar, it was specified that once “the testing and calibration stages of the equipment were completed”, the company had to “manage the corresponding records of approval by the National Communications Entity “.
The government suspended the permit of the company that invested close to a million dollars to install the radar.
“In my opinion, this is an unprecedented scandal. It turns out that, under a precarious authorization, granted by the Undersecretary of Communications and Connectivity in 2022, a radar was installed that the same Undersecretary disavowed a week ago when I requested reports about it ” , sentenced White.
Clarín tried to contact officials from the Ministry of Defense and also from the Tierra del Fuego government, but received no answers.
The Complete Radar Technical Report
