Report

Between ambition and reality: how Space fits into the UK Defence Framework

This report from UK think tank RUSI argues that a wider understanding of the services and support that space can offer is needed across defence.

Space is ubiquitous in modern defence: space capabilities are essential in areas such as gathering intelligence, enabling navigation and precision firepower via GPS, and communicating beyond the line of sight. Furthermore, the utility of space increasingly renders capabilities a target for hostile action. Attacks on space-enabled communications services, as seen during the war in Ukraine, are just one example of how counter-space capabilities are already being used.

In the future, adversaries may not restrict themselves to non-kinetic means, and space itself might turn into a battlefield. UK defence views space as both a domain and an enabler, although the balance is skewed towards enablement. It follows that the space domain must be protected to guarantee its utility as an enabler. The mixed message about space given to the services is part of the reason why space is perceived as complicated – it is used by all the armed forces, yet its potential for supporting other domains is not fully understood.

A wider understanding of the services and support that space can offer is needed across defence – what it enables, what capabilities are dependent on it, what new vulnerabilities have been exposed as a result, and what investments may be needed to optimise its use. This understanding is important for ensuring that space can continue to be used even when its capabilities are under attack, and so that reversionary non-space-dependent alternatives are developed and trained for, where necessary. UK Space Command will be vital for providing the broader education and wider promotion of space needed across UK defence.