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Ofgem, MoD attack pricey terror-friendly windmills

Military, regulators take Quixotic stance

The Times quotes the RAF's Squadron Leader Chris Breedon as saying: "The significance of the low-level radar cover has risen markedly as a result of the terrorist events of September 11, 2001. The MoD is extremely concerned with any proposed wind turbine development which would have an impact."

It appears that the MoD has been conducting trial flights to find out the extent of the radar blindspots around existing wind farms, though they refuse to reveal the results.

The MoD is also worried about being unable to properly monitor frequent UK low-flying training exercises on radar, seen as essential for safety. Britain has a uniquely permissive regulatory environment in this respect, with military jets able to fly at up to 600mph within a few hundred feet of the ground across much of the UK.

As a result, the RAF is perhaps the premier world airforce at high-speed low-level operations, a capability in which it takes much pride. There are those, however, who suggest that in fact the vaunted British low-flying skills are scarcely very relevant or necessary in the modern world - and indeed would have been suicidal had they ever been tried against their intended target, Russian air defences of the Cold War era.

Such critics cite the severe bloody nose inflicted by unsophisticated Iraqi forces against the low-flying RAF in 1991, and point out that modern methods of suppressing enemy defences from higher up are now available. Some add that the UK's likeliest adversaries nowadays - militias, terrorists, warlords, failed states et al - don't have significant air defences anyway. They point out that in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, flying low is actually the just a way to get shot down.

At least part of the MoD objection could be argued with, then; maybe more, depending on your assessment of the risk of low-flying terrorist or enemy attacks in the UK (as distinct from hijacked airliners flying high).

Even if the MoD can be overruled, however, if Ofgem are to be believed the number of new wind farms could still be lower than the government is hoping. ®

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