Britain says it is toughening up. We have promised to raise defence spending and added £2.2 billion for 2025–26.

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But money alone is not enough. It takes years to build the industrial base, knowledge, skills, and talent pipeline needed to have a real effect. That is true across defence, but it is even more pronounced in space, and particularly in orbital defence.

Ukraine makes a useful case study. When GPS is degraded, Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) often become less accurate or drop off altogether.

Drones lose data, artillery units can't operate, and units slow down because they are no longer confident in the data they are working from. The opposite is true when those links hold; the same units operate very differently. They move faster, coordinate more easily, and make better use of the capabilities they have.

So modern militaries depend on space. The issue is that much of the architecture remains........

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