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Robert Wall
October 29, 2025
The Skynet 6A satellite is undergoing component testing at the National Satellite Test Facility. Credit: STFC RAL Space
LONDON—The UK Ministry of Defense is looking to set up a single organization to manage its satellite programs, creating an opportunity for closer cooperation between intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and communication projects.
The UK has historically managed its military satellite communication efforts through one organization and the ISR and precision navigation and timing spacecraft in a second. Both those teams now report to the newly created post of National Armaments Director, setting the stage for further integration.
“We’re pulling … both of those programs together into a single space systems portfolio,” said Barry Austin, program manager for Skynet Delivery, the ministry’s flagship military satellite communications program, at the DISC military space conference in London. Some of the details are still being ironed out.
The effort could help support development of a single space architecture. Austin also said it could lead to program collaboration where systems needed by one mission area are hosted on satellites from the other.
“Having a single program of work for the entirety of defense-space activities is, to me, the most exciting thing we can do,” Austin said.
The effort is unfolding as officials assess how the satellite communications portfolio can adapt its plans for the use of multi-orbit constellations, in part accessed through commercial service providers. “We need to be ready to grasp opportunities where we can,” Cdre. Tony Williams, the UK Space Command’s head of space capability, said at the gathering.
