The concept of ‘dual-use’ is becoming an increasingly critical part of the space equation around the world. Defined by the FDCO as “items which can be used for both civil and military purposes”, dual-use technologies offer many opportunities in terms of enabling new capabilities and driving market growth both in the UK and internationally.
Indeed, dual-use is referenced several times in UK Space Command’s Space Capability Management Plan published at the end of 2022. For example, the plan discusses the overlap of civil Earth Observation (EO) and defence Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), highlighting a key area for dual-use solutions. In this instance, the same satellite assets and much of the same ground infrastructure could be shared by defence, security and civil customers to deliver the outcomes particular to that user.
However, leveraging dual-use comes with a challenge, as capitalising on the opportunities available is not easy. Finding ways to effectively and securely share military space capabilities/solutions with wider Government and commercial users will require the right mindset, the right frameworks, and the right ecosystem of capability providers.
When we think about the UK’s future dual-use strategy, it won’t be technical capability that will determine its success or failure. It will be alignment between Government and Industry.
Exploiting dual-use in the long-term will largely depend on our ability as a sector to establish joined up national priorities that can be delivered together, through a single national Earth Observation programme. One that is built upon a standardised framework for delivering dual-use capabilities, and that enables us to tap into the full range of technical expertise available across the UK.
It all comes down to collaboration – both in terms of Government with Industry and Industry with itself. The former could involve regular working groups to define dual-use capabilities and discuss the evolution of key requirements over time, while the latter could be driven by the primes that have access to large supply chains across the technical landscape.
As a prime, we at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence are very aware that today’s primes need to adapt. We know that we need to change our interaction with our supply chains, build frameworks to help ensure a more open playing field, and facilitate a more collaborative approach that gives greater opportunity to wider industry players – particularly SMEs. This can be achieved by bringing more small businesses into discussions with Government or by partnering with SMEs on specific projects, something we’re actively doing with our Azalea programme.
Through our acquisition of In-Space Missions and collaboration with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology provider ICEYE, we’ve shown our commitment to industry collaboration. This is an approach we will continue to embrace for dual-use specifically and across our wider space activities.
The other key piece of the puzzle concerns the processes involved in delivering and implementing dual-use capabilities.
Long, competitive procurement processes do not always leave room for innovation and rapidly changing technologies, but short spending cycles do not give companies confidence to invest in significant R&D. In order to capitalise on the potential of dual-use space technologies as they continue to evolve, a balance must be struck between the value and supply chain resilience provided by long spending commitments and the room for more frequent technical iterations that shorter commercial commitments would allow.
New frameworks that make it easier for Government departments to consume capability, something that already exists commercially and allows for collaboration and reuse, could potentially solve this issue if we can find a way to enable commitments for services to be placed in advance of delivery.
This could follow two models: 1) a single Government department such as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) acting as an anchor customer and sharing its excess capacity with other departments. Or 2) multiple Government departments pooling contractual commitments to buy services, thereby enabling Industry to invest in infrastructure and technical development. Either way, streamlining commercial engagement between Government and Industry will be critical.
I previously mentioned Azalea, our Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite cluster scheduled to launch in early 2025. Using multiple sensors to deliver high-quality information and intelligence in real-time from space to wherever it is needed, Azalea will have extensive applications across defence, civil agencies and commercial use cases.
It is a perfect example of dual-use capability that is currently being developed here in the UK, offering significant opportunities to positively impact our society. And it’s just one way we’re innovating in space for advantage on Earth, helping to drive our space industry forwards into a new era that will have dual-use at its core.
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We have been working in this ‘Space’ for more than two decades. We have specialist technologies in waveforms, electronics, antenna and digital signal processing and analytics with 20 years in ground based signal processing for various space agencies.