UK hires two companies to write software to support future satellites

LONDON — The British Defence Ministry has awarded two contracts for the development of ground-based software to support its planned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellite constellation.

The U.K. arms of Belgian-based company Rhea and American firm Lockheed Martin won separate contracts, cumulatively worth £4 million (U.S. $5 million).

The deals were announced Feb. 14, although both contractors have worked on their potential offerings since mid-2023, when they were selected from six firms initially tasked to undertake work on what is known as Project Beroe.

The amount of money involved may be small, but the outcome of the research and development work by the two companies could be key, according to Commodore David Moody, the head of capability at UK Space Command.

“This is a pivotal moment for UK Defence and the UK Space Sector as we develop software and partnerships that will determine the future of how we manage our activities in space,” Moody said in a statement released at the time of the announcement. “This project will enable us to define and understand how we will control and optimise the use of our satellites in a safe and sustainable way and is an important part of UK MOD’s future satellite aspirations.”

The 20-month-long contracts are scheduled to conclude in March 2025. There is no public timeline regarding the possible acquisition or future development phases of the software.

Existing British satellite control is focused around the Skynet 5 communications spacecraft network but Project Beroe is expected to enable satellite taskings from a much wider group of government entities and satellite types, individually or in concert.

Project Beroe is not directly related to Skynet and will support future non-Skynet satellite constellations like the low-Earth orbit ISTARI and Minerva programs.

Together, ISTARI and Minerva are to form the building blocks of a low-Earth orbit ISR capability for the British military .

ISTARI is a 10-year, £968 million program planned to deliver a multi-satellite system supporting surveillance and intelligence gathering for military operations.

Minerva is a £127 million project to develop four concept demonstrator satellites: Titania, Tyche, Oberon and Juno.

Tyche, which is the first of the four to launch, is scheduled to enter orbit this year. The Minerva group is meant to demonstrate the ability to autonomously collect, process and disseminate data from British and allied space assets, and this will inform how the ISTARI project moves forward.

Both programs are part of a planned £6.4 billion fund spread out over 10 years , as announced by the MoD when it rolled out its space defense strategy in 2022.

At a cost of about £5 billion, the lion’s share of that spending will go toward the procurement of a new generation of satellites and ground facilities under the Skynet 6 program .

Airbus is already building the first of those satellites, known as Skynet 6A, and a further competition is underway to provide a new generation of narrowband and wideband satellites under the Skynet 6 banner.

Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.

伦敦——英国国防部已授予两份合同，用于开发地面软件，以支持其计划中的情报、监视和侦察卫星星座。

总部位于比利时的 Rhea 公司英国分公司和美国洛克希德·马丁公司分别赢得了合同，总价值达 400 万英镑（500 万美元）。

虽然两家承包商自 2023 年年中以来一直在研究他们的潜在方案，但这些交易是在 2 月 14 日宣布的。当时，他们从最初被委派承担贝罗项目工作的六家公司中脱颖而出。

英国太空司令部能力主管大卫·穆迪准将表示，虽然涉及的金额可能不大，但这两家公司的研究和开发工作的成果可能至关重要。

“对于英国国防部和英国航天领域而言，这是一个关键时刻，因为我们正在开发软件并建立合作伙伴关系，这将决定我们未来如何管理我们在太空的活动，”穆迪在宣布该项目时发表的声明中表示。“该项目将使我们能够定义并了解如何以安全和可持续的方式控制和优化卫星的使用，这是英国国防部未来卫星发展愿景的重要组成部分。”

为期20个月的合同计划于2025年3月到期。目前尚无关于该软件可能的收购或未来开发阶段的公开时间表。

英国现有的卫星控制主要集中在 Skynet 5 通信航天器网络，但 Beroe 项目有望使更广泛的政府实体和卫星类型能够单独或协同地执行卫星任务。

Beroe 项目与 Skynet 没有直接关系，并将支持未来的非 Skynet 卫星星座，例如低地球轨道 ISTARI 和 Minerva 计划。

ISTARI 和 Minerva 将共同构成英国军方近地轨道 ISR 能力的基础。

ISTARI 是一项为期 10 年、耗资 9.68 亿英镑的计划，旨在提供一个多卫星系统，以支持军事行动的监视和情报收集。

Minerva 是一个耗资 1.27 亿英镑的项目，旨在开发四颗概念演示卫星：Titania、Tyche、Oberon 和 Juno。

“台喀”号是四颗卫星中首颗发射的，计划于今年进入轨道。“密涅瓦”卫星群旨在验证自主收集、处理和分发来自英国及其盟国太空资产的数据的能力，这将为ISTARI项目的后续发展提供参考。

这两个项目都是英国国防部在 2022 年推出太空防御战略时宣布的一项为期 10 年、总额达 64 亿英镑的计划基金的一部分。

这项耗资约 50 亿英镑的计划，其大部分资金将用于根据 Skynet 6 计划采购新一代卫星和地面设施。

空客公司已经在建造第一颗此类卫星，名为 Skynet 6A，目前正在进行另一项竞赛，以提供新一代 Skynet 6 品牌的窄带和宽带卫星。

Andrew Chuter 是《防务新闻》的英国记者。