Defense a key focus for new UK $10.6B, 4-year space spending plan

The UK is focusing on developing its homegrown space capabilities. (Getty Creative/Julos)

WASHINGTON — The United Kingdom today published a new 2027-2035 national space strategy centered on “defence, national security and economic growth,” accompanied by an interagency spending plan totaling “more than” £7.8 billion ($10.6 billion) through 2030.

The new strategy is putting top priority “for faster development” on four key space “subsectors:” satellite communications, space domain awareness, in-orbit servicing assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) and access to space — i.e., UK-based space launch.

These “have been selected for their growth potential, contribution to the wider economy, alignment with national security and defence priorities, and importance to building a more competitive and strategically focused sector,” the strategy explains.

The plan does not provide a total, nor all the details, of investment by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). However, the strategy and its accompanying technical annex [ PDF ] highlight several major development efforts, including:

space domain awareness capabilities that are”nationally separable” from ongoing joint programs with allies;

independent intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities;

a “sovereign, resilient” positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) infrastructure; and,

“novel space technologies.”

In particular, the strategy cements a UK government commitment to enabling MoD to achieve “ space control ” ― echoing US space policies and strategies.

“The UK must possess the capability to gain and maintain freedom of action and manoeuvre in, from, and through space; to protect and defend UK and allied space interests; and to deny adversaries the same freedoms – collectively described as the UK’s Control of Space Requirement,” the document explains.

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“The UK will urgently develop an integrated, whole-of-government approach to delivering our Control of Space Requirement utilising all orbital domains and military, diplomatic, regulatory and legal levers to deter threats and protect UK and allied interests,” it adds.

The plan to deliver on this requirement, the document says, is for MoD and the Department of Business, Innovation, Science and Trade to “establish an integrated roadmap connecting civil and defence technology development” in ISAM, space domain awareness and space control, to be published in “forthcoming updates to defence space policy.”

The largest MoD investment detailed in the new strategy is a planned £880 million between 2026-2027 and 2029-2030 for ISR and space control “activities.” The technical annex elaborates that these funds will be spent on development of “sovereign” space-based ISR systems and the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) space monitoring project with the US and Australia, noting that DARC construction in the UK is set to begin next year. However, it does not break down the split between new ISR projects and DARC.

The strategy document pledges that by 2035, the UK will have a “secure, assured, UK-owned and operated, nationally separable ISR capability, prioritising technology, missions and infrastructure along with strong international relationships that enhance national security and economic growth by improving the UK’s ability to monitor security risks.”

But while the strategy details a number of planned civil agency investments in remote sensing capabilities to support ISR, including to support European Space Agency programs, it does not provide any information about MoD budgetary plans — except to note continued investment in the £968 million ISTARI program aimed at delivering a multi-satellite ISR constellation, together with future ground systems, by 2031.

As for space domain awareness activities beyond DARC, MoD is further tasked to work with a mix of civil agencies, including continuing support for the National Space Operations Centre jointly managed with the US Space Agency. It also is assigned to solely undertake enhancements to the Borealis command, control and data processing system for the joint center, including those designed to improve sensor tasking. (Borealis was initiated in May with a £65 million contract to CGI UK.)

While MoD has a role in developing ISAM capabilities, the non-defense UK Space Agency will be the primary investor in commercial firms, per the documents. According to the technical annex, the government later this year intends to publish “guidance in 2026 to support ISAM and lunar missions, incorporating RPO [remote proximity operations] sandbox findings to enable UK innovation in Active Debris Removal and ISAM.”

Likewise, on PNT, the technical annex shows that most development activities will be undertake by civilian agencies. However, MoD is to take a lead role in “concept studies for the technology required to deliver global timing independent of, and not susceptible to the same vulnerabilities as, GPS and other Global Navigation Satellite Systems.”

Finally, the strategy notes that MoD is planning to spend “at least” 10 percent of its “annual Equipment Programme budget on novel technologies,” including £420 million “to accelerate the delivery of innovative space capabilities.”

英国正致力于发展本土航天能力。（Getty Creative/Julos）

华盛顿——英国今天发布了一项新的 2027-2035 年国家太空战略，该战略以“国防、国家安全和经济增长”为中心，同时还发布了一项跨部门支出计划，到 2030 年总额将超过 78 亿英镑（106 亿美元）。

新战略将四个关键太空“子行业”的“更快发展”置于首要位置：卫星通信、空间领域感知、在轨服务组装和制造 (ISAM) 以及进入太空——即英国的太空发射。

该战略解释说，这些行业“之所以被选中，是因为它们具有增长潜力，对更广泛的经济做出贡献，与国家安全和国防优先事项相一致，并且对于建立一个更具竞争力和战略重点的行业至关重要”。

该计划并未提供国防部投资总额或全部细节。然而，该战略及其配套技术附件[PDF]重点介绍了几项重大发展举措，其中包括：

与盟友正在进行的联合项目“在国家层面上可分离”的空间领域感知能力；

独立情报监视侦察（ISR）能力；

一个“自主、有弹性”的定位、导航和授时（PNT）基础设施；以及，

“新型空间技术。”

具体而言，该战略巩固了英国政府致力于使国防部实现“太空控制”的承诺——这与美国的太空政策和战略相呼应。

该文件解释说：“英国必须具备在太空、从太空和穿越太空获得并保持行动和机动自由的能力；保护和捍卫英国及其盟国的太空利益；并阻止对手获得同样的自由——这些统称为英国的太空控制需求。”

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“英国将紧急制定一项综合性的、全政府范围的方案，利用所有轨道领域以及军事、外交、监管和法律手段，来满足我们对太空的控制需求，以遏制威胁并保护英国及其盟国的利益。”声明补充道。

文件称，为满足这一要求，国防部和商业、创新、科学与贸易部将“制定一个连接民用和国防技术发展的综合路线图”，涵盖信息系统评估与管理（ISAM）、空间领域感知和空间控制，并将在“即将发布的国防空间政策更新”中公布。

新战略中详述的最大一笔国防部投资计划是在2026-2027财年至2029-2030财年间投入8.8亿英镑用于情报、监视与侦察（ISR）和太空控制“活动”。技术附件详细阐述了这些资金将用于开发“自主”天基ISR系统以及与美国和澳大利亚合作的深空先进雷达能力（DARC）太空监测项目，并指出DARC在英国的建设将于明年启动。然而，附件并未详细说明新的ISR项目和DARC项目的具体支出比例。

该战略文件承诺，到 2035 年，英国将拥有“安全可靠、由英国拥有和运营、国家可分离的 ISR 能力，优先发展技术、任务和基础设施，以及通过提高英国监控安全风险的能力来增强国家安全和经济增长的强大国际关系”。

虽然该战略详细列出了民用机构为支持情报、监视和侦察 (ISR) 而计划在遥感能力方面的多项投资，包括支持欧洲航天局的计划，但它没有提供任何关于国防部预算计划的信息——除了指出将继续投资 9.68 亿英镑的 ISTARI 计划，该计划旨在到 2031 年交付一个多卫星 ISR 星座以及未来的地面系统。

除了DARC之外，国防部还负责与多个民事机构合作开展空间领域感知活动，包括继续支持与美国航天局联合管理的国家空间作战中心。此外，国防部还被指派专门负责对联合中心的Borealis指挥、控制和数据处理系统进行改进，包括旨在提升传感器任务分配的改进。（Borealis系统于5月启动，与CGI英国公司签订了一份价值6500万英镑的合同。）

文件显示，虽然国防部在开发ISAM能力方面发挥作用，但非国防机构的英国航天局将是商业公司的主要投资方。根据技术附件，政府计划于今年晚些时候发布“2026年指导方针，以支持ISAM和月球任务，并将远程近距离作业（RPO）沙盒研究成果纳入其中，从而促进英国在主动碎片清除和ISAM领域的创新。”

同样，关于定位、导航和授时（PNT），技术附件显示，大部分研发活动将由民用机构承担。然而，国防部将在“提供独立于全球定位系统（GPS）和其他全球导航卫星系统之外、且不受相同漏洞影响的全球授时所需技术的概念研究中发挥主导作用”。

最后，该战略指出，国防部计划将其“年度装备计划预算”的“至少”10%用于新技术，其中包括4.2亿英镑“以加速交付创新的太空能力”。