The UK government is investing in detection tech and laser sensors to defend critical satellites from drastic disruption.

Lasers can be used by adversaries to track the location of satellites, dazzle or blind them, or to intercept and interrupt communications.

About a fifth of the UK economy is reliant on satellite services, but the critical infrastructure is under increasing threat.

Head of the UK Space Command, Major General Paul Tedman told the BBC in an interview that Russia’s military has been attempting to disrupt the UK’s military satellites once a week with ground-based systems, underscoring the risks these vital technologies face under rising geopolitical tensions.

Nearly 20% of UK GDP is reliant on satellite services, which are essential for supporting daily life, including through communication, money transfers, navigation, emergency services, and weather forecasting.

Satellites are also critical to defence, providing capabilities such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and providing instant communications to military platforms.

The new sensor technology under development will be able to determine the characteristics of lasers based in space or on the ground and whether they pose a threat to the satellite, providing the military with crucial information to protect and defend UK and allied space systems and assets.

The new sensors are being developed by the UK Space Command (UKSC), which is a joint command of the British Armed Forces, and the UK Space Agency (UKSA), the Government body responsible for the country’s civil space programme.

The project is backed by around £500,000 of funding – the first allocated as part of the UKSA’s Unlocking Space for Government programme, which aims to harness space to improve UK public services and strengthen national security.

“Space is a hugely important and contested frontline and satellites play a vital role in UK prosperity and security. They are crucial to our everyday lives and provide a critical capability for our Armed Forces. It is essential they are protected,” minister for defence readiness and industry, Luke Pollard MP, said.

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“Today’s announcement shows our commitment to defend British assets in orbit – which protect us on the ground, in the air and at sea. This supports our national security, delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change.”

Commenting on the plans, Tedman said: “The Strategic Defence Review raised space to parity with the traditional warfighting domains and underscored the critical importance of space to our economy, prosperity and national security and defence.

“It made it clear that space does not just accessorise our way of war, in many respects it is changing it fundamentally. It also made clear that threats to our national interests in space are increasing.

“In this new era of threats, UK Space Command is competing against a growing arsenal of adversary counterspace systems and requires new and innovative edge technology to protect and defend our satellites.

“Therefore, I am delighted that in less than 6 months after publishing the SDR, we are investing new money into this novel technology to accelerate our space programme.”