The presence in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) of a section on space alongside the land, sea, maritime, and cyber & electromagnetic domains represents the latest step of a journey kicked off by the Integrated Review of 2021 to make space a fully-fledged ‘operational domain’. It was the Integrated Review that committed the funds for the creation of a UK Space Command, endorsed by the subsequent Defence Command Paper with a plan to establish a National Space Operations Centre, and to improve both the UK’s understanding of space as an environment and its access to and use of space-based capabilities. The refresh of the Integrated Review and Command Paper in 2023, following the publication of a National Space Strategy and the Space Defence Strategy, all reaffirmed the significance of space and the direction of travel. But what the new SDR demands in terms of the transformation of the Armed Forces may require additional prioritisation of resources allocated to space if it is to succeed in its aims.
The Route to Success for the SDR is Through Space | Royal United Services Institute
