Last Thursday the 15th , the website radarinternacional.com stated that “ the British company Leolabs “installed a radar antenna with a military function in Tierra del Fuego . ” He stated that it is a “powerful sensor” that “serves to detect satellites and missiles in low space orbits” and that “could provide information to the space intelligence system of the United States Department of Defense.”

Whether the publication is correct or not, what is certain is that on March 13 of this year, from Menlo Park, California ; Leolabs officially reported that it will “install” in Argentina, more precisely in the “Archipelago of Tierra del Fuego (…) its next space radar”, which it called Argentine Space Radar; AGSR for its acronym in English.

In the statement Leolabs said, it “further strengthens the ability” of the company “to track objects and monitor activities in low Earth orbit,” and “it allows us to offer timely coverage to operators and regulators in order to avoid future collisions in orbit.

The reasons given for the company's choice of location on that date were as follows: “it was chosen mainly because of its high latitude, which is very beneficial for supervising high-risk conjunctions that usually occur above 60 degrees latitude”, allowing “to have better knowledge of the situation in the southern hemisphere and reduce position uncertainties, which will result in more precise and reliable conjunction data messages. The location, equipped with high-band technology S, it will also increase LeoLabs' ability to discover new objects, such as small lethal debris that is currently uncatalogued.”

Leolabs CEO Dan Ceperley himself confirmed this: “This location will greatly improve our ability to track objects and monitor high-risk events in low Earth orbit.” When completed in late 2023, the AGSR will expand LeoLabs' global network to include seven operational centers with plans to expand further in the coming year.

TOLHUIN: 25 years in the crosshairs of the US

On Tuesday, March 14, the Leolabs announcement was celebrated by the US ambassador to Argentina Marc Stanley , and by the Argentine embassy in the US, to the point that its CEO, Dan Ceperley; He was allowed to record an announcement from the diplomatic residence itself, with the national flag in the background and without Ambassador Jorge Arguello appearing at any time. Neither that day, nor on subsequent days; There was no statement from the government of Tierra del Fuego in this regard, despite the importance it had in both diplomatic headquarters, even more so when Ambassador Stanley had been in Ushuaia four days before, meeting with Governor Gustavo Melella .

📡🛰️🇦🇷 During Argentina National Space Day at our Embassy, Daniel Ceperley, CEO of LeoLabs announced his investment in Tierra del Fuego in radars intended to monitor satellite activity.pic.twitter.com/Vah7qZlstA

— Embassy of Argentina in USA (@ARGinUSA) March 14, 2023

“Ushuaia is not only a great place for stargazing, it is also a key point for the American space company @LeoLabs_Space to collaborate with companies and governments around the world to protect against space debris,” Mark tweeted on March 14. Stanley.

Ushuaia is not only a great place for stargazing, it is also a key point for the American space company @LeoLabs_Space to collaborate with companies and governments around the world to protect against space debris. #SpaceSafety https://t.co/Pf27QO5NNJ

— Ambassador Marc R.Stanley (@USAmbassadorARG) March 14, 2023

Anyway, beyond Stanley 's expressions; The city of Ushuaia does not seem to be the place chosen for the installation of this radar; but rather in the vicinity of the town of Tolhuin , located 100 km north of Ushuaia . And it could even be that a large part of the installation has already been completed or is in an advanced stage of construction. This is what residents of many communities estimate. years of Tolhuin, who confided to Agenda Malvinas that, for several months, they have been hearing that, to the north of the town, at km 2946 of National Route No. 3 , some antennas or a radar were being installed.That the Provincial Energy Directorate extended the electrical network to that sector and that the Tierra del Fuego Police provide security permanently, assigning a patrol car every night, at the entrance to the El Relincho ranch, where They say, “those devices” could be located. “They put in backhoes, they dug a trench for the underground wiring that reaches the first line of the mountain; and behind the mountain is the construction,” they said this Saturday, on a tour of the sector.

It would not be strange if the chosen place was in the vicinity of Tolhuin . In 1998 , former president Carlos Saúl Menem had a law approved in the National Congress authorizing the creation in that Mediterranean town of the Big Island of Tierra del Fuego, a base American military enabling North American troops to move freely throughout the provincial territory. And although the project did not materialize as planned, on July 26, 2003 , former governor Carlos Manfredotti signed a decree authorizing the establishment in Tolhuin, of a headquarters of the "International Surveillance System for the Prevention and Prohibition of Nuclear Tests and Explosions", sponsored by the United States government.

Closer in time, and at the national level, on July 15, 2019 , the National Commission for Space Activities (CONAE) inaugurated an Earth Station in Tolhuin to transmit and receive data in band S, and also receive in bands X and Ka.Providing support to the mission of the Argentine satellites SAOCOM 1A and 1B , the Tronador launch vehicle, and space missions of our country and international agencies.

The Fuegian legs of the two British companies

The journalistic article from radarinternacional.com signed by Nicolás Promanzio ; considers that in addition to allowing “the detection and avoidance of space debris collisions, this infrastructure could serve to locate satellites, missiles and other objects in low space orbits, so the infrastructure could be a valid military objective in the event of an armed conflict.” ”. Implying that the company that settled in Argentina is based in Great Britain and not in the United States. Assuring that its creation “is promoted and financed by different international clients, public and private, which include strategic areas of the state defense apparatus of the United States such as Space Command and the Anti-Missile Defense Agency.”

In this case, the legal establishment of Leolabs in Argentina did not happen now in March 2023. The approval of the registration process in the General Inspection of Justice of Tierra del Fuego was published in the Official Gazette of the Province, on 4 March 2022 under two names: LEOLABS SPACE HOLDINGS LIMITED and LEOLABS LIMITED; the latter with the same name that it acquired in the United Kingdom and not LEOLABS INC., as its name appears in the US.

Both LEOLABS SPACE HOLDINGS LIMITED and LEOLABS LIMITED; They have domicile constituted in De los Ñires Street 2250 Ground Floor D in the city of Ushuaia, and their legal representative is the lawyer Pablo Renán Bilbao, DNI: 26.542.032; former official in Rosana Bertone 's government until 2019. Meanwhile, the data on the foreign companies of which both have subsidiaries in Argentina, refer to the first in “England” and the second in “ Ireland” . Therefore, as reported by radarinternacional. com; in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland .At least that's what it says in the registration data of the Fuegian State that appears in the BO