LONDON \u2014\u00a0Britain needs to start ordering a new generation of satellites by 2018 if it wants to replace the Skynet 5 spacecraft currently providing the military with communications capabilities by 2022, according to Colin Paynter the managing director of the UK arm of Airbus Defence and\u00a0Space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The current concession [to provide a satellite communication service] ends in 2022. To build a satellite needs around four to four and a half years depending on what new developments they go for so they have to be willing to place the infrastructure program by 2018,” Paynter said in an interview just ahead of the opening of the DSEI\u00a0defense show in London this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Airbus Defence boss\u00a0said that while the Skynet 6 program was firmly on the company’s radar screen, the specification hadn’t emerged from the MoD as the armed forces continued to do their internal work to develop that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I would look to do some\u00a0technology demonstrations next year and then do some formal procurement \u00a0in 2017,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Airbus has been providing the British military with a satellite communications service since it signed a private finance initiative (PFI) deal worth billions of pounds with the MoD in 2003. The original deal was extended and now covers four Skynet 5 satellites, supporting ground stations and other infrastructure until 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Airbus ground stations, which sit on government-owned land, will be handed over to the MoD in exchange\u00a0for a pound when the deal ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paynter said it remains unclear how the MoD will contract for its communications satellites in the future but thought it unlikely it\u00a0would go down the PFI route as that method of funding had largely fallen out of favor with the government \u2014 even though the Skynet 5 scheme had worked well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I think if they have the capital budget they will buy the spacecraft this time round and contract out the service provision. They are not likely to tie themselves into a PFI, although it’s always an option,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n