Satellite services underpin 18 per cent of United Kingdom GDP, and the new UK Space Strategy and the Defence Investment Plan together commit £3.2 billion to protect British jobs in the sector, according to an answer given in Parliament.
Katrina Murray, the Labour member for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch, asked what steps the Secretary of State is taking to defend United Kingdom interests in space.
Luke Pollard, the Minister of State for Defence, said: “Satellite services underpin 18 % of UK GDP. Our brand new UK Space Strategy and Defence Investment Plan sets out our commitment to invest £3.2 billion to protect British jobs.”
The 18 per cent figure counts the share of the economy that depends on satellite services somewhere in its operation, covering position, navigation and timing as much as communications and imagery. Financial transactions, electricity grids, mobile networks, aviation, shipping and agriculture all take their timing signal from satellites, and the dependency is invisible until the signal degrades.
Britain’s military space holdings run through SKYNET for secure communications, with the SKYNET 6A satellite under construction by Airbus, alongside the ISTARI programme for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance from orbit and the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability being built with the United States and Australia to track objects in high orbit. UK Space Command at High Wycombe brings the operational side together.
The strategy published last month committed billions across civil and defence space together, and this publication covered the defence money inside the new national strategy at the time. Scotland carries a substantial share of the industrial base, with small satellite manufacturing in Glasgow and launch infrastructure in Shetland and Sutherland.
A separate answer the same day confirmed that life extension of the in-service SKYNET 5 satellites would use in-orbit servicing technologies, with satellite refuelling under consideration on a capability-by-capability basis.
