What the militarisation of space means for our armed forces

The P-8 Poseidon on the runway at military airfield RAF Lossiemouth is in a fleet of aircraft that plays a key part in Britain’s military strategy. This maritime patrol aircraft is an example of the focus on high-tech weaponry that is key to the recent review of defence and security policies. 

Meanwhile, inside the Boeing 737 fuselage is an array of equipment including an acoustic sensor system with multi-state sonobuoys, an APY-10 radar with modules for high-resolution mapping, an electro-optical/IR turret and electronic support measures. The armament includes MK 54 torpedoes for engaging targets underwater and harpoon anti-shipping missiles. The US Navy, in addition, is trialling high altitude anti-submarine weapon capability, which can turn the MK54 torpedo, with its GPS guided parachute, into a glide bomb that can be deployed from 30,000 feet. 

The P-8 is used for hunting Russian submarines in the northern waters, guarding the nuclear fleet of Polaris submarines based at Faslane with the two new aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. The security threat to Britain is predicted to increase in future, as the Arctic ice cap melts and opens a new passage into the Atlantic, which could be accessed by Russian and Chinese forces.

The former American head of Nato military, Admiral George Stavridis, points out that “the Chinese are building nuclear-powered icebreakers, something the US has not even contemplated. At more than 30,000 tonnes, these Chinese ships will outpace any other nation’s capability with the exception of Russia.”

The Integrated Review into defence and international relations policies, and the subsequent Command Paper, predicts conflicts of the future will focus on cyber, drone, space, advanced aircraft, and special forces. How our finite budget is carved up, between modern warfare and conventional war methods, has become a contentious debate. 

Critics, including former chief of defence staff, Lord David Richards of Herstmonceux, and Tobias Ellwood, the chairperson of the Commons Defence Committee, claim investing too much in future combat leaves the military unbalanced in the short term.

There are fears over a reduction in armour strength, with fewer Challenger 2 battle tanks, and a reduced Army from 82,500 to 72,500. The upshot of the review is that soldiers will be better equipped and better protected, but they will be in smaller numbers.

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Arguments about the review continue. On Tuesday General Sir Nick Carter, successor to Lord Richards as chief of defence staff, insisted at a seminar at IISS (International Institute of Strategic Studies) that there was an overwhelming consensus for change: “I can’t remember a time when chiefs of staff committee had been more united” than they had been over the decisions taken, he stressed.  

The allocation of £1.4bn on space operations over the decade, with the establishment of a Space Command, is a loud statement about the future. A number of defence analysts feel that it would have made sense for the RAF, which already has a team of more than a hundred people involved in space security, should lead in this field, while drawing in personnel from the other two services. The new “space force” will at least be headed up by a former RAF station commander from Lossiemouth, Air Vice Marshal Paul Godfrey. 

Lossiemouth is an apt place to consider how the RAF fared in the review. Its fleet of 14 C-130 Hercules transport aircraft will be replaced by the Airbus A400M Atla military transport aircraft. In the helicopter fleet, nine ageing Chinooks and 20 Pumas are also due upgrades. The Boeing E-3 Sentry fleet was due to be replaced by five Boeing Wedgetail E-7 early warning aircraft, the number of these have since been reduced to three from five. The MoD has committed to buying more than the F-35B jets, and there is a need for more, but the timeline for that remains unclear.  

Twenty-four tranche 1 Typhoon aircraft will leave service, with F-35s coming in and a new aircraft being developed in the UK in Project Tempest. The Tranche 1 jets are not suitable for electronically scanned array radars, which will instead be fitted to the Tranche 2 and 3 jets.  

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“I don’t think we have been short-changed in any way, what needed to be done has been done, we need to move forward and we are doing so in a methodical way. It is imperative to think ahead and this is a great opportunity to modernise the RAF, along with the other services, and it is an opportunity we need to seize,” said Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, the head of the RAF. 

“We need to consider what operations in the future will be like. There will be swarming drones, but they will be in mixed formations with piloted aircraft – that’s why we are developing the Tempest jet-fighter, which will transform air combat. There will be challenges ahead, from protecting undersea cables to space, which is now a warfighting domain, we no longer have unchallenged access to space; countries are abusing what had been a domain good for all humanity and we now have militarisation of space.” 

Funding, and its constraints, is the constant factor in any defence review. The government has announced an additional £16.5bn over the next four years, along with an annual 0.5 per cent real-term increase in the defence budget for six years after 2024. Some of it will plug a financial black hole in the equipment programme, priced at £17.4bn according to the Public Accounts Committee, and priced at £7.3 billion, according to the MoD. 

A portion of the money will go to the northern constituencies that formed the “red wall”, which the Conservatives won from Labour in the last election. There will also be new projects in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland – investments Boris Johnson hopes will help save the Union. 

The secretary of state for Scotland, Alister Jack, visited RAF Lossiemouth last week. Standing in the Poseidon hanger, he gave a speech to personnel on how Scotland will benefit from increased defence investment, “our Union will be more secure and prosperous,” he said, paraphrasing Boris Johnson. 

The first question after his speech was whether all this “was not just a cynical ploy’’, an attempt to halt the growth of Scottish nationalism. The minister seemed momentarily taken aback, the political dimension of defence spending is not lost on members of the military serving the country.