Response to space weaponry threat
DEFENCE: Britain will take steps to protect itself against military threats in space from Russia and China in a review of the country’s defences, says Ben Wallace.
The Defence Secretary said the review would lead to “pivoting away” from a focus on conventional warfare to “operate much more in space, cyber and sub-sea”.
BRITAIN WILL take steps to protect itself against military threats in space from Russia and China in a sweeping review of the country’s defences, according to Ben Wallace.
The Defence Secretary said yesterday that the review would lead to his ministry “pivoting away” from a focus on conventional warfare to “operate much more in the newest domains of space, cyber and sub-sea”.
His comments come after the UK and US accused Russia of testing an anti-satellite weapon in space earlier this month.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Wallace said China was also “developing offensive space weapons”, a move which has prompted the most comprehensive review of Britain’s defence capabilities since the Cold War.
Mr Wallace said the world was “moving at an unprecedented pace and our defence must move with it”.
“Our adversaries go further, deeper and higher. The binary distinction between peace and war has vanished,” he said.
MPs have warned that the type of anti-satellite weapon Russia is accused of firing could cripple the UK’s systems. Russia has dismissed the accusation as “propaganda”.
Mr Wallace wrote that, as traditional conflicts change – with space, cyber and data the new battlegrounds – Britain needs to
take action to “outmanoeuvre our adversaries with a sharper technological edge and relentless focus on innovation”.
Russia’s alleged anti-satellite weapons test has caused widespread alarm, with UKspace –
Ben Wallace, Defence Secretary. the trade association of the British space industry – warning that such missiles could mean “the end of space” as humans know and use it.
“If you actually fired at other satellites, space would quickly become a field of massive shrapnel and, as you can imagine, that would be the end of space,” Will Whitehorn, UKspace president, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Lieutenant General Sir Simon Mayall, ex-deputy defence staff chief, also urged the UK to push against anti-satellite weapon development, telling the programme: “The consequences (are there) for every nation on Earth of some kind of catastrophic confrontation in space because we are so reliant on satellites, and will continue to be.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry has rejected the allegations and said in a statement that the July 15 experiment did not threaten any other space objects and complied with international law.
It described the claims as part of an “information campaign to discredit Russia’s space activities and its peaceful initiatives aimed at preventing an arms race in space”.
But Will Whitehorn, president of UK Space, the body representing the British space industry, said he was confident in the MoD’s assessment.
Speaking on the Today programme, he said: “It didn’t actually hit anything – it is quite possible it was a test that went wrong or they decided they didn’t want to hit anything with it.”
The binary distinction between war and peace has vanished.