As the role of space-based military capabilities becomes critical, the UK’s military services with a stake in the sector are looking for increased funding from the upcoming Strategic Defence Review (SDR), amid assessment over sovereign versus service-based capabilities.
Space-based capabilities are currently managed by UK Space Command, which reached initial operating capability in April 2022 and is charged with providing space-based awareness and critical capabilities for the UK Armed Forces in areas such as satellite communications, intelligence gathering, and data networking.
Previously, space operations would be managed through the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Space Directorate, which has been gradually ceding responsibilities to Space Command.
Speaking at the Farnborough International Space Show (FISS) on 20 March 2025, Air Marshall Allan Paul Marshall, Air and Space commander at the MoD, said that he was “hoping” that space would get an increased share of the defence budget.
“We are confident in the arguments we have made and [they have been] well received,” Marshall said, adding that Secretary of Defence John Healey and Minister for the Armed Forces Luke Pollard were both supportive of space-based capabilities.
As to what any space-specific funding would be use for, Marshall said a calculation had to be made in where to invest for sovereign UK capabilities, what would be obtained through collaboration with allies, and what could instead be acquired as a service via the commercial and civil sectors.
“We can’t afford to have sovereign everywhere. We need to work out where we have interoperability with allies and where we need to access other capabilities. I’m very happy to buy in services, but equally there will be ‘must own’ (capabilities),” Marshall stated.
In particular, Marshall said that Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems were “really expensive” to obtain as a sovereign capability.
“Are we going to develop our own brand new sovereign PNT in the near term? Probably not,” Marshall said.
Military applications of PNT include positioning and locating of platforms in an area of operations or battlefield, as well as targetting and coordinating functions like C4ISR.
New UK SAR spy-sat coming soon
The UK MoD is, however, beginning to develop its own sovereign capabilities in areas where previously it had to rely on collaboration with allies or via a commercial service model.
In 2024 the MoD launched, via SpaceX, a new military spy satellite into orbit, the first of four such research and development platforms being created under the Istari programme.
The satellite, dubbed Tyche, will provide high-resolution daytime imagery for the UK defence establishment, and is the first military satellite to be fully owned by the MoD.
UK Space Commander, Major General Paul Tedman said at the time that the launch demonstrated that Space Command could “rapidly take a concept through to the delivery of a satellite capability on orbit.”
The upcoming Oberon two-satellite constellation will feature a synthetic aperture radar (SAR), enabling the delivery of high-resolution imagery of land during cloud cover or at nighttime.
Other space-based capabilities operated by commercial companies on behalf of the MoD include the Skynet communications satellite constellation, which is currently being upgraded to the Skynet 6 standard.
