From Gaza's skies to Cardigan Bay: The drone testing facility dividing a Welsh village

When the UK decided to suspend 30 licences for arms exports to Israel on 2 September, the news resonated worldwide. It was met with predictable backlash in Israel and was examined with close interest in the US, where the Biden administration is under pressure to stop (or at least condition) its own military funding and arms exports to Israel. But there was one other, unlikely place where the news hit very close to home –  the tiny Welsh village of Aberporth.

Aberporth stretches along the West Coast of Wales and boasts a population of just over 2,000. There is a pub, an ice cream parlour, a café and a beach. And there are also surveillance drones prowling the sky and the occasional missile crashing into Cardigan Bay, albeit only after advance warning to kayakers.

The village is next to West Wales Airport, a state-of-the-art drone testing facility that is privately owned but receives government funding; MOD Aberporth, a military testing range operated by the defence firm QinetiQ; and ParcAberporth, a development site for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). These are three separate sites - an airport, a testing range and a technology park, all located around the village.

Advocates for the development of drones cite their ability to give ground troops greater scope of vision, their usefulness for incorporated search and rescue missions, and, on a grander level, the contribution they can make to national security while growing the economy. But the technology has a darker side, too: there is little doubt that technology tested and demonstrated in Aberporth would have both benefited from and contributed to suspected war crimes in Israel-Palestine. This was the case even before the onset of the current war on October 7, 2023, which has since claimed over 1,500 Israeli lives and over 40,000 Palestinian lives, overwhelmingly civilians; but drones are also being used in Gaza and beyond today, including in some of the most high-profile mass-casualty incidents of the conflict.

One example is the Watchkeeper, a British drone tested and developed at Aberporth. While the model itself was never used in Gaza, it is based on the Hermes 450, a surveillance and attack drone extensively used by the Israel Air Force. It is produced by Israeli company Elbit Systems, which markets it as “combat-proven”.

Another Elbit drone, Hermes 900, made several flights from the West Wales Airport when showcased to the UK coast guard in 2020. In December 2023, operators flying the drone in Gaza bragged to the Daily Telegraph they could, “theoretically”, use it to kill only the driver of a car, leaving the passengers “shaken but alive”.

The reality is far less surgical; according to Israeli-Palestinian media collective +972 Magazine, the infamous killing of four young boys playing football on a beach in a drone strike in the 2014 war on Gaza was also carried out with the Hermes 900. Al Jazeera reported that both Hermes 900 and Hermes 450 were used extensively in the 2014 war in Gaza, where Al Mezan medical centre estimated as much as 37% of casualties could be attributed to drone attacks. The Hermes drones are also being used in the ongoing war; the notorious killing of seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen in April 2024 was carried out entirely with Hermes 450 drones, according to Israeli defence officials who spoke to Israeli daily Haaretz.

“It’s horrible. We are so lucky to live in such a peaceful, quiet rural place, and it’s just really shit to think that the same kind of weaponry that’s flying over the Palestinians dropping bombs is flying over us,” Suki Atwal, a local resident and a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ceredigion (PSC) told The Lead. “Despite [then] deputy prime minister Nick Clegg calling Israel’s 2014 shelling collective punishment, the UK continued to court Israel and its arms companies,” she says. “To me, that’s our government and whoever [else is involved] saying it’s another carte blanche. It’s them saying it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re welcome here with your weaponry.”  

West Wales Airport did not respond to a request for comment on the flight path of the drones, what footage they record, what the footage is used for and how long and where it might be stored.

Atwal’s phrasing, “our government or whoever”, is apt. The exact nature of the relationships between the Welsh government, Westminster and the defence firms operating out of Aberporth is not entirely clear, making it difficult to know who to hold accountable. MoD Aberporth, the range, is run by QinetiQ on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, and West Wales Airport is private but received a grant from the Welsh Government for its development in 2009 worth £600,000. As of 2023, the airport owed £351,174 to the Welsh government, meaning the Welsh government, which has been very keen to keep its relationships with the defence industry at arm’s length, has a financial stake in a firm that has hosted Israeli military tech and tests military drones. Parc Aberporth is owned by the Welsh Assembly Government but shares airspace with the QinetiQ-run MoD range. The Lead has filed FOIs with the Welsh government and MoD to try and unpick the tangle of contracts across the three sites, but has not heard back by the time of publication. 

The Watchkeeper’s bumpy ride

It’s also unclear what benefits Britain gains from the Watchkeeper’s development, especially ones that justify the financial costs and legal and reputational risks.

The drone was conceived in 2005, when the British government awarded a grant for drone development to U-TacS, a joint venture between Thales, a French defence firm, and Elbit Systems. Over the next ten years, the program resulted in merely 146 flight hours, of which only six days on active duty, in Afghanistan. This had cost the taxpayer over £1.2bn; a price tag of £200,000,000 per day of active service. More recently, the drones were also used to surveil the English Channel over a six-week period in 2020. Specifically, the MOD announced, that the drones would help “tackle” small boat crossings, a stint immortalised in a taxpayer-funded painting commissioned by the Army. Despite the huge investment in their development, the Home Office went on to use drones from another client of Aberporth, Tekever, who produce drones that are favourites among Ukrainian intelligence. Tekever was the largest recipient of government funding among drone producers, according to a Tech Monitor report from 2022; it netted an additional £1 billion between 2017 and 2021. Elbit Systems was pushed to fifth place with a paltry £942,000 over the same period. 

Nevertheless, Aberporth continued to be used for efforts to improve the Watchkeeper. FOI requests by The Lead reveal that the Watchkeeper drone flew 21 times from West Wales Airport between January 2023 and March 2024, with flights lasting up to 6.5 hours. The MoD told us that “these flights were for the purposes of test and evaluation, testing and proving hardware and software system upgrades before they are introduced into front-line service”.

Today, Watchkeeper’s test flights involve drones flying over the sea and local area, practising surveillance to simulate missions abroad, in what Paul Mobbs, a researcher who opposed the testing of drones in the area, described in 2014 as “the quiet militarisation of West Wales’ skies”.

Some local residents, such as Jill Gough, who lives just outside Aberporth, dispute the “quiet” part of Mobb’s formulation, telling The Lead that the noise and privacy invasion of these drones has been “really unpleasant”. QinetiQ said that no drones from MoD Aberporth fly over houses or gardens and suggested The Lead contacts WWA. West Wales Airport did not respond to a request for comment on the flight path of the drones, what footage they record, what the footage is used for and how long and where it might be stored. Meanwhile, QinetiQ, the defence firm formed when MOD Aberporth was partially privatised in 2001, also tests live missiles in parts of Cardigan Bay, with warnings issued to local residents and kayakers to avoid nearby waters.

Elbit Systems did not respond to The Lead’s question asking if any data from Watchkeeper testing at Aberporth was relayed to the Israeli military.

Elbit Systems has recently begun selling the Watchkeeper X, an export variant of the MOD’s Watchkeeper, worldwide. “West Wales Airport has supplied the services and world-class accommodation that has enabled the test and evaluation of the Thales Watchkeeper UAS to be carried out,” the West Wales Airport website reads. QinetiQ told The Lead that “Watchkeeper uses the MOD Aberporth airspace for flying activities. QinetiQ – operating the range on behalf of the MOD – segregates the airspace.” In 2023, it was announced that QinetiQ had developed a communications system custom-made for small UAVs that would be fitted to Watchkeepers.

In 2023, Elbit Systems also announced receiving a $180 million purchase order for Watchkeeper X from Romania. The deal was announced by Yoram Shuley, the General Manager of Elbit Systems Aerospace division in Israel. He highlighted collaboration between Britain and Israel, saying, “We also appreciate the continued support and collaboration with the Israeli and UK governments and our business partners on the Watchkeeper program. The ongoing research and development we are investing in the Watchkeeper platform will enhance the capabilities of both the Romanian and British Armed forces to meet evolving operational requirements.”

Suki Atwal tells The Lead that Elbit Systems “benefited from the testing and development that’s been done at Aberporth. All the stuff that’s been done here on UK soil and skies has gone on to plug back into Elbit Systems […] maybe not in terms of deployment but in terms of revenue and what they’re using that for. It’s a two-way relationship.” Drones tested and developed in Aberporth can then be sold around the world, with some profits ultimately reinvested in the Israeli war effort. As for more direct benefits from the tests, Elbit Systems did not respond to The Lead’s question asking if any data from Watchkeeper testing at Aberporth was relayed to the Israeli military.

A local community split 

Local residents in Aberporth are beginning to question the role their village plays in enabling the military-industrial complex. In April, 60 activists blocked the entrances to Parc Aberporth, preventing workers from accessing the site for the day. Their goal was to slow activity and draw attention to the presence of QinetiQ, which says it doesn’t provide arms to Israel and that the company’s “thoughts are with all those affected by the conflict in Gaza”. Still, between 2008 and 2021 QinetiQ held eight arms export licences to Israel. Four of these licences were approved between 2018 and 2020, meaning QinetiQ has had dealings with the Israeli state as recently as 2021, when Israel killed at least 129 Palestinian civilians during the crisis in May. Notably, QinetiQ stock rose after October 7th and has continued rising.

QinetiQ claims to have no business with Parc Aberporth or West Wales Airport. However, evidence given by Thales to Parliament in January 2024, describes “the partnership with the local Aberporth MOD range, QinetiQ, West Wales Airport” as key to Wales’ place as a hub for drone development. Documents on the Welsh government website from 2022 show that the Welsh government is planning to work with both QinetiQ and the MOD over the next decade to develop Cardigan Bay as an area for the space industry in Wales. The MOD gave evidence to parliament in 2018 highlighting both MOD Aberporth and drone testing at West Wales Airport as evidence of Wales’ important role in UK defence strategy.

Though QinetiQ clearly has a relationship with the Welsh government, Dinal Mulholland, an organiser with PSC Ceredigion, believes that “the Welsh government’s relationship with this is really quite odd”. She explains: “QinetiQ worked hand in hand with the Welsh Development Agency and then beyond that with the Welsh government on Parc Aberporth, [the drone development site next to the airport] and to develop West Wales Airport. While all this is going on, the Welsh government claims not to have any active involvement in the defence industry in Wales.” Yet the aerospace, cyber, space and defence industries contribute around £4bn each year to Wales' economy and supports around 23,000 jobs.

“While defence [itself] is not a devolved power, the defence industry is”, a spokesperson from Ceredigion PSC told The Lead. Indeed, a 2011 press release from the Welsh government stated that the Welsh government was, in fact, “the driving force behind setting up the Wales UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] environment”.

“The 30 licences that have been cut are such a tiny proportion of what we actually export to the Israeli state, it’s such gestural politics, it’s meaningless,” one campaigner says.

A similar protest occurred a few weeks earlier in March, organised by Ceredigion PSC, to block the roads into West Wales Airport, again to stop work for the day and highlight what the airport is used for. Jill Gough, a long-time CND member, tells The Lead, that “the whole development of Parc Aberporth as a military drone site goes against the traditions, culture and aspirations of many people in Wales and implicates us all in internationally illegal remote spying and killing as well as human rights issues”.

Others, however, see some benefits of military operations in their area. Gethin Davies, a member of the community council, says, “There’s always been a connection to the Israelis since the beginning […] they don’t create [the drones] here mind you, they just test them. At the moment, we’re in trouble with the whole world.” He hopes there isn’t a world war, but says the UK always has to be prepared. “As it is in Gaza, I’m against it. [Israel] shouldn’t have gone this far at all. But we’re only individuals. We can’t stop it, only world powers can. So regarding the [drone testing] I have no issues with it.”

Another Aberporth local, who prefers not to be named, says that the testing sites are “a big source of employment, and the jobs pay well, which in Ceredigion is rare.” They feel that rural Wales doesn’t get much funding from the government. “The funding stops at London, and we’ve got a high unemployment rate here in Ceredigion, so I think that’s why people close their eyes to something like this.”  In 2004, the Welsh Development Agency said that 1000 jobs could be created in 20 years. In 2024, QinetiQ said it employs 200 people in its Aberporth facility, far below that number but not a small number for a village of just over 2,000 residents. West Wales Airport declined to share with The Lead how many people are employed there.

Ben Lake, Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion Preseli, finds himself navigating the tension between opposing the arms trade on ethical grounds and securing jobs for his constituency. While Lake recently signed Zarah Sultana’s letter to the government,  raising concerns about the refusal to include the components for F-35 fighter planes in the arms export licences ban. However, in a Welsh Affairs select committee meeting on the 15th of November 2023, Lake asked representatives from the Welsh defence industry how the government would be able to address skills gaps to allow young workers to enter the industry. Just a few weeks earlier, he had asked about the role the defence industry could play in boosting prosperity and "levelling up" in Wales.

Lake pointed The Lead to a 2018 motion he signed, which “condemns the UK arms trade for supplying weapons which are used in conflicts resulting in significant civilian suffering from Gaza to Yemen” and regrets that Cardiff is the venue of choice for this exhibition of the UK arms trade.”

“This remains my stance on the UK arms trade and defence industry,” Lake went on. “In my questions to the witnesses on the Committee last year I was testing assertions made in written submissions, and attempting to establish why they believed the defence industry could rejuvenate the economy of areas such as those that I represent in west Wales. It should not be assumed that having asked such questions [to the committee], I subscribe to the answers received. Indeed, my parliamentary record clearly shows that I am of a different view.”

Still, opponents are beginning to claim some wins: QinetiQ recently withdrew from a partnership with Aberystwyth University in their proposed “Spectrum Centre” developing new wireless technologies. The National Spectrum Centre’s statement simply reads that since the Mid Wales Growth Deal, which saw QinetiQ partner with Aberystwyth University in a proposal for the centre, “plans have changed,” and they will no longer be working with third parties. PSC Ceredigion hailed the withdrawal as a win, suggesting that “the pressure placed on the university by Palestine activists will have played into the decision-making”.

The 30 export licences suspended by the government might be an important precedent, but its direct impact on the UK-Israel arms trade is still negligible. Data compiled by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade cross-referenced against membership of the Wales Aerospace Forum suggests that there are around 202 active licences for export to Israel - granted to companies active in Wales alone. (DBT refused to confirm to The Lead which specific licences had been dropped, except to say they were for components deemed likely to be used by Israel in Gaza.)

The campaigners against the arms trade in West Wales also remain unmoved. “The 30 licences that have been cut are such a tiny proportion of what we actually export to the Israeli state; it’s such gestural politics, it’s meaningless,” says Mulholland. “It might even be more dangerous because it allows people to think we have done something when actually, at a structural level, we have done nothing at all”.

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