Introduction

United Kingdom Space Command (UKSC) is a joint command of the British Armed Forces organised under the Royal Air Force, and staffed by personnel from the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force and the British Civil Service. The UKSC has three functions: space operations, space workforce generation, and space capability.

UK Space Command was established on 01 April 2021 under the command of Air Vice-Marshal Paul Godfrey. Godfrey is of equal rank to the commanders of the RAF’s Groups. The new command has:

“responsibility for not just operations, but also generating, training and growing the force, and also owning the money and putting all the programmatic rigour into delivering new … capabilities.”

UKSC headquarters is at RAF High Wycombe co-located with Air Command.

When fully operationally capable, UK Space Command will “provide command and control of all of Defence’s space capabilities, including [the] UK Space Operations Centre, Skynet (satellite) communications, RAF Fylingdales, and other enabling capabilities.” The command was initially planned to grow to about 650 personnel.

Defence Command Paper and Space Strategy

In a March 2021 Defence Command Paper it was announced that part of the additional £1.4 billion allocated to support UK Space Command over the next decade would be used to develop a new Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) satellite capability, following on from the Carbonite-2 technology demonstrator launched in 2018.

Brief History

On 22 April 2021 it was announced that Air Commodore Mark Flewin was to become Head Operations, Plans & Training, United Kingdom Space Command, Royal Air Force High Wycombe in May 2021.

As of 2021 Commodore David C. Moody (Engineering Branch, RN) was posted in as Head of Space Capability for UK Space Command.

In February 2022, the first part of the Defence Space Strategy was published, which included the already announced extra investment of £1.4 billion over 10 years mostly for the development of the multi-satellite surveillance and intelligence ISTARI system. The strategy announced that the UK would adopt an “international by design” approach, and is the first state to publicly join the US led Operation Olympic Defender, enabling international sharing of space resources and the synchronisation of space efforts. The UK will strengthen relations with the Five Eyes intelligence partnership.

Operational concept demonstrator satellites for the ISTARI system, with electro-optical sensors and onboard processing, are planned for launch in 2024, under project MINERVA.

Structure

As of September 2021, the structure of UK Space Command comprised:

• Commander UK Space Command
  • Military Assistant
  • Chief of Staff
  • Head of Operations, Plans and Training
    • Deputy Head Space Operations
    • Deputy Head Space Plans
    • Deputy Head Space Support
  • Head of Space Capability
    • Deputy Head Capability Space Operations
    • Deputy Head Defence Space Portfolio
    • Chief of Staff Space Portfolio Office
  • Commander Group Staff Officer
• 1 Space Operations Squadron
• 2 Space Warning Squadron

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