May’s EU security warning:
Armed Forces confined to ‘less than the best’ if they are excluded from new Galileo navigation aid
BRITISH Armed Forces could be blocked from using the military applications of Europe’s Galileo satellite network after Brexit, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.
EU legal concerns over whether a non-eu state can be granted access to the ultra-accurate encrypted satellite navigation data when it comes online in 2020, are behind exclusion plans being discussed in Brussels.
Military experts warn that British forces would be working with “less than the best” unless the UK can broker a deal to gain access to the network.
The current tough EU position is enshrined in the draft legal text of the Brexit transition agreement, which states that the UK will be treated as an EU member state except where this would “grant access to sensitive information” that a non-member “is not to have knowledge of ”.
Earlier this month, EU ambassadors were briefed by European Commission legal experts that this language – in paragraph 6 of the transition text – had been added to avoid the UK having access to sensitive information, and specifically Galileo’s military applications.
The EU hardline emerges as Theresa May prepares to make a major speech at the annual Munich Security Conference in which she will pitch for the UK to remain an integral part of Europe’s security infrastructure, including Eu- ropol and the European Arrest Warrant.
Mrs May has signalled that the UK wishes to continue to opt into such programmes after Brexit – many of which she battled against Tory Eurosceptics to join when home secretary – but significant legal questions remain over whether this will be possible.
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said the EU was split between pragmatists and purists over security cooperation and if the UK should have privileged access to sensitive information as a non-member.
“The pragmatists argue that the UK has so much to offer that special arrangements need to be made, but the legal ayatollahs – of whom there are several in the commission – argue that in principle non-members cannot have anything like as close a relationship to the EU as members.
“Otherwise, argue these purists, the decision-making autonomy of the EU could be sullied and other countries would ask for similar arrangements.
“For some officials, such legal principles may be more important than the practicalities of ensuring that crooks and terrorists are caught,” he said.
The Galileo system of satellites is due to be complete in 2020 and will give European nations their own precise encrypted GPS network.
In January, the European Commission announced that the back-up monitoring centre for the system, which was to be based in Swanwick, Hants, would now be moved to Spain.
Alexandra Stickings, a space security expert at the Royal United Services Institute, said the programme was developed so the EU would no longer have to rely purely on US or Russian GPS signals.
‘Legal ayatollahs argue that non-members cannot have anything like as close a relationship to the EU as members’
She said: “The problem with relying on someone like the US is that it could choose to degrade the signal or even to cut it off. If the US felt that GPS information was being used against them in some way it could cut that off.”
America shares its GPS system with other nations, including Britain, but keeps the most accurate data for its own armed forces. Ms Stickings said: “What we get is less than the best.”
Galileo however will contain a highgrade public regulated service (PRS) for government-authorised users such as police, emergency services and the military. The PRS would give European users far better encryption, anti-spoofing and anti-jamming capabilities than they have had so far.
“What you are getting from it is much more robust, much more accurate and much more useful for security issues,” she said.
Norway and Switzerland are believed to have agreed access to the PRS, but have had to pay. Ms Stickings said: “It depends on how the UK is treated after Brexit, as to whether that’s something the EU is open to doing.”
She said the ubiquity of GPS in everything from financial systems to military command and control meant access to precise information had become critical. She told The Telegraph: “For the UK, having the benefit of access to a very robust, encrypted signal is essential and if we don’t have that, we are behind the tide really.
“We could still use the GPS, it’s just the signal we get would not be as good.”
Being shut out from Galileo would also harm the UK space sector, she said.
Britain has so far played a leading role in its development, but UK space firms now stand to lose contracts and funding.