BRITAIN must overhaul its entire space policy to offset the increasing threat from China and Russia, a new report has warned.
“The threats are worsening. China and Russia are building counter-space capabilities ranging from the ability to push satellites out of orbit to direct descent missiles and lasers,” said space expert Gabriel Elefteriu of the Council on Geostrategy think tank.
US Space Command has already warned that China’ experimental Shijian-17 satellite is equipped with a robotic arm which could have the ability to shunt other satellites out of position.
Other methods include directing other smaller satellites to deliberately collide with their targets.
Even the ability to adequately deal with Russian hypersonic missiles is a space issue, he said.
While the US is building a multi-layered sensor constellation to address the hypersonic threat, we cannot continue to rely on allies, he said.
“It’s vital that we develop our own sovereign capabilities. Relying heavily on allies such as the US in the space domain, just as with RAF pilot training, is increasingly fraught with risk, as their forces could also struggle in a crisis,“ he said.
And the main recommendation is the fusion between civil and military domains to form a single National Space Enterprise to cut waste, re-prioritise national security and to place UK space power on a par with France.
It follows a damning report by the National Audit Office suggesting a complete lack of oversight , noting that over the last eight years ‘the UK had generated the highest cumulative deficit of any European Space Agency member’ – in in other words, investing more in ESA than it has been receiving in return as contracts for industry.
In his report Better Space Mr Elefteriu, a founding partner of AstroAnalytica – a specialist research and consulting practice for the space domain – said four steps were vital.
They begin with granting the UK Space Agency new authority as a “three star” organisation responsible for civilian and military capabilities which, like France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) , would report directly to Government.
In addition, all publicly-funded research and development agencies should be consolidated under a single Space Missions Centre reporting directly to the UK Space Agency.
All sovereign civil and military orbital capability requirements should be consolidated under a single Operational Capability Plan aligned with UK’s space interests. This would then become the heart of Britain’s national space programme, funded by combined budgets and better efficiencies.
And finally, the UK must create a longer term ten-year Space Technology R&D Plan deliberately linked and designed to support both civil and defence objectives.
He added: “Time is running out. China and Russia are catching up fast, and we are in a more dangerous space environment than ever before.
“Russia, despite its war in Ukraine, continues to use its wartime budget to invest in key military space capabilities.
“We need to show long-term vision, just like we did with the Aukus submarine plan which looks forward to 2050.
“Though, in reality, progress in space technology may make submarines much less useful by 2050.”