It has been announced that the UK’s biggest space project, its Skynet military satellite system, is be extended. The network of three satellites which were launched in 2007 and 2008 as part of a £3.6bn project is vital in providing secure communications to Britain’s armed forces, a process that will be helped with the addition of the new fourth spacecraft.
Creating almost 900 jobs including some 100 high-tech posts, the construction of Skynet 5D will occur in Stevenage and Portsmouth to be ready for a 2013 launch. Run by Paradigm Secure Communications, the Ministry of Defence contracts the systems, resulting in a Private Finance Initiative that is one of the most expensive ever signed by the MoD. Talking of his pleasure that the scheme had been extended Malcolm Peto, Paradigm’s chairman said “The decision to go for a new satellite is an absolute vindication of the approach that made Skynet 5 a service contract. It gives the MoD an assurance that the extra bandwidth will be there to meet their needs, and it gives us the ability to sell more capacity to third parties.”
Valued at £400m, the new extension will also incorporate spare parts for the future roll out of further Skynets 5A, B and C. Allowing forces to share data quickly back and forth between command centre’s, the new satellite will provide up to two and half times quicker speeds and allows UK forces to utilise the latest military weapons including Reaper drones, aerial units which can be remotely piloted.
