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).

[5] 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.

[7][8] 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 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.

[9] The Skynet satellites provided secure and encrypted facilities, though expensively, for the British armed forces and intelligence agencies.

[15] The largest user of the Skynet satellites during the Cold War was the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ),[16] who were responsible for over 80% of traffic at some locations such as Cyprus.

[17] Skynet has had throughout all its models a good degree of interoperability with U.S. and NATO military communications satellites and ground stations.

[14] Some time in the mid-1970s, the now-defunct satellite was moved far from its original position; its current location in a stable "gravity well" (see Geostationary orbit#Stability) at longitude 105° W off the Pacific coast of Latin America is 36,000 km away from its original position, and it could not have simply drifted and ended up in this stable orbit.

[26] Despite being in an unstable orbit, the ground stations successfully located and tracked Skynet 2A and were able to use telemetry readings from the solar panels to determine its alignment.

Based on this analysis, it was decided to use the alignment thrusters to deorbit the unit, and it was destroyed when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 24 January 1974.

[28] It was positioned in geostationary orbit above Kenya to give coverage of Europe, Africa and a substantial part of Asia as far east at the Philippines.

[5] Skynet 3 series satellites was cancelled as the United Kingdom withdrew East of Suez, and instead the capability it was intended to offer was delivered via U.S. and NATO assets.

[5][12] This dependence on U.S. assets was identified as a weakness during the Falklands War and was one of the contributing factors for the emergence of the Skynet 4 series satellites tranche of space vehicles.

[14][32] The Royal Navy was also concerned that the high frequency radio alternative enabled location tracking by the Soviet Union Ocean Surveillance System.

However, following the 1986 Challenger disaster (STS 51-L), the programme slowed and all the Skynet 4 series satellites had to be modified to suit the changes needed to go on a disposable launch vehicle.

[34][35] As of 2022, Skynet 4C is still in operation, providing service to the U.S. Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station for up to six hours a day because its orbital inclination has increased to 10.3°.

[10] The improved Stage 2 satellites (4D, 4E and 4F) were built by Matra Marconi Space and Astrium to replace the earlier versions.

It was contracted via Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to a partnership between Paradigm Secure Communications and EADS Astrium, a European spacecraft manufacturer.

All of the downlink beams are fully steerable and the whole payload is optimized to maximise performance for small, rapidly deployable satellite ground terminals on land, sea or air.

At time of launch, the Ariane 5ECA launcher set a new record on this mission, deploying a total payload of more than 8,700 kg (19,200 lb).

Skynet 5D provides more than double the UHF channels of the previous satellites, which are in demand as they support "comms on the move" for soldiers with backpack radios.

[45][61] In 2011, The MOD took ownership of a NATO satellite with two UHF channels, to support the additional demands from British involvement in the War in Afghanistan.

[4][68] The fleet of military X-band satellites have been specifically designed to support smaller, low powered, tactical terminals.

[70][8] Airbus Defence and Space will build a non-competitively sourced Skynet 6A satellite planned for a 2025 launch, as a transition to a new architecture.

[77][78] The vision for Skynet 6 is a flexible system architecture that combines UK government, allied and commercial satellites.

[7][79] Part of the enhanced capability would be to support data links to unmanned aerial vehicles and F-35B Lightning II aircraft.

[80][81] As of 2019, Skynet is the large part of the MOD Future Beyond Line of Sight Satellite Communications programme (FBLOS), which extends to 2041, and has four elements:[72][82] On 3 July 2020, the UK Government announced that it had acquired a 45% stake in the OneWeb low Earth orbit satellite communications company, for US$500 million including a golden share to give it control over any future ownership sale.

[76] In February 2023, Babcock International won the Service Delivery Wrap support contract to operate and manage Skynet, including the ground infrastructure and integrating new user terminals, for six years from March 2024 at a cost of £400 million.

[89] In early 1999, Reuters reported that the Skynet system was breached by a group of hackers who issued blackmail threats against the MOD.