BELFAST — UK Chief of the Air Staff announced today that Britain will stand up a new space squadron focused on countering enemy threats and defending local “interests.”
“No. 3 SES [Space Effects Squadron] will disrupt, degrade and deny hostile activity,” said Harv Smyth, as he announced the move at the UK Space Power Conference in London. Run by “specialist personnel” the squadron will take on offensive and defensive space missions, he added.
“No one wants a war in space. We are positioned to deter this,” said Smyth, but he warned that the UK is witnessing “more and more irresponsible and provocative actions” from its enemies across the domain.
The announcement comes just days after senior US military officials shocked the space world by acknowledging it currently has on-orbit “space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action.”
For the UK, No. 3 SES is an addition to the No. 1 Space Ops Squadron that teams with the National Space Operations Centre to track hazardous objects and the No. 2 Space Warning Squadron, established to provide missile warning and space tracking capabilities.
“We are planning more” squadrons, said Smyth, noting that an expansion program building out 4, 5, and 6 squadrons will include a space tactics and training branch, in addition to “squadrons which will deliver the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability.”
According to the UK MoD, the UK-US-Australia Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) program sits as the “cornerstone” of Britain’s capacity to detect and track items such as satellites, space debris and asteroids in Earth orbit.
“The use of three sites for DARC (in the UK, US and Australia) will enable 360 degree coverage of the sky at all times of day and under any weather conditions,” states a MoD overview of the effort.
Without disclosing additional details, Smyth also indicated that a “Space Defence function” will be developed as “part of the newly established Integrated Air, Space and Missile Defence Operations Centre.”
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The future hub is an upgrade to the UK’s national air and missile defense operations center and fits within a £400 million ($530 million) Defence Investment Plan (DIP) commitment to replace aging C2 systems and sensors. The document, which lays out long-term UK defense spending and budget priorities, commits an “initial investment” of £40 million to the modernized center.
More broadly, the DIP allocates £3.2 billion in support of space capabilities over the next four years. Funding is split between £2.3 billion for satellite communications and £880 million to cover space-based Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR).
From 2030 to 2035, the UK plans on spending a minimum of £9 billion on “new capabilities” for the space domain, according to the DIP.
As Breaking Defense reported earlier this month, the recently unveiled UK 2027-2035 national space strategy put forward an interagency spending plan of “more than” £7.8 billion out to 2030.