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The UK has previously invested £1.3bn in the European Union’s 30-satellite constellation, built to reduce reliance on the US GPS system. Airbus also employed 100 people in Portsmouth working on the project, which is due for completion in 2020.
Galileo will provide free orientation to public users and more accurate information for military uses, but the UK faces losing access to the high-precision data when it leaves the EU, while Airbus work is moving to France and Germany.
“Without the assurance that UK industry can collaborate on an equal basis now and in the future, and without access to the necessary security-related information to rely on Galileo for military functions such as missile guidance, the UK would be obliged to end its participation in the project,” a government release said today.
The £92m investment – from the £3bn ‘Brexit readiness fund’ – will pay for an 18-month engineering, design and development project to create a detailed technical assessment and schedule for a UK global positioning system. It would provide both civilian and encrypted signals and be compatible with the US GPS system, the government said.
The UK Space Agency will lead the work with support from the Ministry of Defence. Ministers also positioned the investment as an “injection” for the UK space sector, with a number of multi-million pound contracts available for British companies.
Business secretary Greg Clark said: “Britain is a world leader in the space industry and satellites. We are investing in an alternative option to Galileo to ensure our future security needs are met using the UK’s world-leading space sector.
“Our position on Galileo has been consistent and clear. We have repeatedly highlighted the specialist expertise we bring to the project and the risks in time delays and cost increases that the European Commission is taking by excluding UK industry.
“Britain has the skills, expertise and commitment to create our own sovereign satellite system and I am determined that we take full advantage of the opportunities this brings.”
The government is still negotiating with the commission to remain involved. Even if the £92m plan does not result in a sovereign satellite system, the announcement said, the fund will still support UK jobs and expertise in areas including spacecraft and antenna design, satellite control systems, cryptography and cyber-security.
Defence secretary Gavin Williamson said: “The danger space poses as a new front for warfare is one of my personal priorities, and it is absolutely right that we waste no time in going it alone if we need an independent satellite system to combat those emerging threats.”
Dr Bleddyn Bowen, space policy expert at the University of Leicester, previously told Wired UK that having a system to improve accuracy or as a back-up for the US constellation would be useful. Any UK project, however, would cost the country billions of pounds – an investment at odds with decades of sensible spending, he claimed. “This is deeply embarrassing for British space. It makes no sense.”
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