Overview

• The joint effort by UK Space Command and the UK Space Agency is backed by about £500,000 under the UKSA Unlocking Space for Government programme.
• The technology aims to identify and characterise lasers from space or ground sources, determine whether they pose a threat, and provide intelligence to defend UK and allied space systems.
• The planned capability is intended to help protect military, commercial and civilian satellites that underpin communications, navigation, finance, weather services and emergency coordination.
• Senior officials have reported active counterspace activity, with Major General Paul Tedman citing weekly jamming, Russian stalking of UK satellites, and dozens of counterspace systems in GEO and more than 200 in LEO.
• Officials frame the funding as an initial step ahead of a Defence Investment Plan expected in the autumn to set longer-term space resilience priorities.