Skynet (satellite)

Skynet is a family of military communications satellites, now operated by Babcock International on behalf of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence (MOD). They provide strategic and tactical communication services to the branches of the British Armed Forces, the British intelligence agencies, some UK government departments and agencies, and to allied governments. Since 2015 when Skynet coverage was extended eastward, and in conjunction with an Anik G1 satellite module over America, Skynet offers near global coverage.

The Skynet contract allows Airbus Defence and Space to sell surplus bandwidth, through the Skynet partner programme, to NATO and allied governments, including the Five Eyes intelligence alliance members (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States). As of 2020, seven Skynet satellites are operating, plus Anik G1.

The Skynet 1 to 4 series were developed and operated by the Signals Research and Development Establishment, Royal Signals and Radar Establishment and Royal Air Force until 2003. It was subsequently operated with Skynet 5 by Paradigm Secure Communications until October 2012, when the organisation was rebranded to Astrium Services then through merger in 2015 became Airbus Defence and Space.

The MOD is currently specifying a new architecture for Skynet to replace the Skynet 5 system, whose funding programme ended in August 2022. The vision for Skynet 6 is a flexible system architecture that combines UK government, allied and commercial satellites, including the current Skynet 5 satellites. Skynet is the large part of the MOD Future Beyond Line of Sight satellite communications programme (FBLOS), which extends to 2041, with expected transition costs of about £6 billion.

In the 1960s, only two countries had communication satellites, the United States and the Soviet Union. The United Kingdom created Skynet as its own military communications satellite system, because of inadequate undersea communications cable availability and to increase flexibility, reliability, data capacity and security. The Signals Research and Development Establishment led the development of Skynet 1 and 2, and its successor Royal Signals and Radar Establishment carried out research for the development of the subsequent satellites and ground terminals.

The MOD space communications research programme began in 1962, initially considering Moon and space debris bounce techniques, before considering a UK satellite. In 1964, it was decided Skynet should be in geostationary orbit over the Indian Ocean, significantly to support East of Suez deployments, and have a transponder with two channels permitting communications between two types of ground station. This would be an advance over the ongoing U.S. Initial Defense Communication Satellite Program (IDCSP). In 1965, the U.S. invited the MOD to participate in their IDCSP programme, and to participate Marconi were contracted to build three 40 foot diameter air transportable ground stations for the launch of the first IDCSP satellites in 1966. As Britain had insufficient industry expertise to build satellites, a contact was placed with U.S. Philco Ford to build Skynet 1, but with the assistance of Marconi to improve UK expertise for Skynet 2.

Nine ground stations were initially planned, which could also communicate with sub-geostationary U.S. IDCSP satellites:

Skynet 1A was the first military satellite in geostationary orbit, in 1969. The Royal Air Force displayed a model of the Skynet satellite on the children's television show Blue Peter in 1969, the show also described the new British satellite control centre at RAF Oakhanger.