Sitrep: UK makes a giant leap in launching its first British-owned military satellite

The UK has launched its first sovereign military satellite into orbit, but does this mark a small step or a giant leap for Britain in the military space race?

Former Royal Navy officer Darren Jones, from Surrey Satellite Technology, joined space security researcher Juliana Suess to discuss the launch on this week's Sitrep podcast – which analyses the top defence stories of the week and is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Sitrep's resident defence expert Professor Michael Clarke said the launch of the £22m Tyche satellite is "a big leap for us".

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He said that "if there's one thing you can say about space and defence, it's that we as a society have huge vulnerabilities because of our dependence in space". 

"So the fact that we have some sovereign capability, I think, is the beginning of a pretty long journey in terms of defence," he said.

But what does the Tyche satellite offer the UK?

Well, Darren Jones, who works for the firm responsible for building the Tyche, told Sitrep the satellite will be used for surveillance and reconnaissance imagery.

He added that while the satellite does not produce the highest quality images, the fact that the UK has control of its own satellite is really the benefit of Tyche.

"I guess most of your [audience] will know that there are lots of occasions where the Armed Forces will want to contract out services to civilian providers," he said.

"But there are lots of occasions where it can't do that and it needs to have complete control over a particular bit of equipment. 

"In this case, having a sovereign capability, having its own satellites means the MOD has full access to all of the data.

"It can task the satellite exactly how it wants to, and it can be fully assured of the imagery it's gaining from it."

Prof Clarke concurred with Mr Jones, saying the pictures produced by – and the use of – the Tyche satellite are "a bit like intelligence".

"95% of all intelligence you can get is from open sources, but the 5% you can't get, that's gold dust," he said.

"And when you need it, nothing else will do. 

"In a way, this is the case with sovereign capability.

"You may be able to do these things more cheaply using the market, which has expanded terrifically in the last 10 years, but when you need a very specific defence requirement, nothing else will do on those occasions when you need it.

"And are we likely to come up against those occasions in the next 10 to 20 years?" he asks.

"You bet your life we are because of the way the world is."

RUSI's space security researcher Juliana Suess also said there will be instances where the information produced by the satellite is needed faster and that cannot be shared with commercial partners.

"It's exactly those, sort of, short-term tasking of a certain area that will be important," she said.

"Specifically also, if we want to revisit that area multiple times and be able to see certain areas of progress.

"For example, if we want to see whether infrastructures are being built, for example, and if we're talking about an asset in low-Earth orbit, specifically, we're talking about a revisit rate of about every 90 minutes or so."

The Tyche satellite is the first in the Ministry of Defence's pursuit of a wider jigsaw of military satellites, eventually making up the spy satellite project, Minerva.

It is expected that the MOD will spend £1bn on space between now and 2030, according to Prof Clarke.

With an upcoming defence review, as well as a spending review, the Telegraph has reported that the wider Minerva project could be under threat.

But Prof Clarke said it would only be under threat of being delayed, not canned.

You can listen to Sitrep wherever you get your podcasts, including on the Forces News YouTube channel.