A plan for two huge wind turbines in Cornwall has raised objections from the Ministry of Defence which fears the towers could mask enemy jets entering British airspace, it has been reported.
It has been suggested officials at the defence ministry say the 115ft towers are so tall they could look like planes on monitoring equipment.
The MoD claimed radar could classify the turbines as a threat – automatically sending in fighter jets to investigate and allowing real enemies to sneak in, The Telegraph online reported last night.
It was said the turbines would confuse computer systems designed to protect Britain – and military officials do not want them to go up.
The turbine plans have been submitted by Richard and Ian Lobb, who want to install the 50kW towers on their neighbouring farms in St Ewe, Cornwall, where they also run a farm shop.
However, The Telegraph reported that their application had prompted a written objection from the MoD which warned the installation would cause "unacceptable interference" to an air traffic control (ATC) radar 30 miles away in Wembury, near Plymouth, in Devon.
Radar operators have to treat any unidentified object as a genuine threat – and could even have to scramble fighter jets to investigate. The objection said: "Wind turbines have been shown to have detrimental effects on the performance of MoD ATC radars.
"These effects include the desensitisation of radar in the vicinity of the turbines, and the creation of 'false' aircraft returns which air traffic controllers must treat as real.
"The desensitisation of radar could result in aircraft not being detected by the radar and therefore not presented to air traffic controllers."
More than 100 villagers have signed a petition against the plans.
