RAF 17 UK Space Command

Royal Air Force

RAF 17 UK Space Command

Part One
2025 ~ 2035

WHEN THIS RAF Paper was first published on this website on August 1, 2021, I had not seen the wide screen series E><SPANSE. I tend to steer clear of inter-galactic stories, Star Wars and beams contending with medieval swords. That’s just me, of course. Horses for courses.

That Paper can be read below in Part Two 2021.

It is 5 July 2025.

A sobre assessment on BBC Newsnight last evening of what the United Kingdom faces within five to ten years is roughly where Britain found itself in 1935 and began to think twice about Churchill’s unpopular and unwelcome warnings.

Artificial intelligence is moving at such speed that no sooner do we upgrade, than a week later we find last week’s upgrade is already obselete.

A major international war in Europe with Russia is a certainty. At the outside, by 2035. Ominously, as early as 2030.

Our Aim

Strategies in space move closer to "disruption and denial" of assets, not their destruction.

Part Two 2021

A couple of months ago, having watched the sci-fi series Jericho about a present day terrorist attack on America comprising 24 nuclear bombs being set off, the series caught me, not so much because of the scenario, but its fairly accurate portrayal of what happens to any sophisticated civilisation that begins to come apart at the seams and a return to medieval tribalism.

Having stayed the course to its ‘sort of’ happy ending, my eye, again, caught E><SPANSE ~ set in the Twenty-third Century.

Ah! ‘I don’t really have any idea on its storyline but, hey ho, if I can enjoy some Jericho escapism, maybe this might catch my imagination. Not least, because we know, all too well, that cyber warfare is here to stay, and now we have embryonic quick-up-equally-quick splash-down commercial space flights for the celebrity rich and celebrity famous, celebrity undoing any credence they might think we lesser ones will grovel and scrape to.

In other words, Space exploration is not going to go away. And where human nature treads, so does its three-eyed companion exploration ~ with the seize, conquer, colonise.

I also watched the Moon-landings again. That was quite emotional, because at my age, I’d watched them in real-time as a gangly 17-year-old teenager. So, yep. I think I’ll see what E><SPANSE has to offer.

I’m glad I did.

People may, of course, take the view that I’ve lost the plot. Sure. That’s no problem. I believe in freedom of expression. But I also keep my eye on the past. That is the key. People living in the 1700s would simply not have envisaged the world of the 1900s, let alone the 20th and 21st Centuries.

Most of us simply cannot envisage the advances that will inevitably be made by the end of this 21st Century.

This is where, respectfully, the doom and gloom of narrowed thinking underpinned by outspent religions must quietly take one step back. Reality and Fantasy are never good bed-fellows.

5 July 2025

Kenneth Thomas Webb


Liverpool


©2025 Kenneth Thomas Webb

First Written 17 February 2022

UK Space Command

Space One

WHAT a thrill today to read a report by Tom Sables in the July 30, 2021 edition of Forces Net.

A joint services command comprising personnel from the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, together with members of the Civil Service was established in April 2021.

It is now officially launched as UK Space Command.


Space Two

Its strategic importance is underlined by the announcement being made by the prime minister when he confirmed, in November 2020, that the comprehensive Defence Review established that the budget of £16.5 bn for the new command was additional to current defence spending.

Tom Sables also comprehensively lists the tasks of this new command and which I bullet point:

UK Space Command [UKSC]

• will oversee operations, training and our capability in Space


• its joint command will be led by Air Vice Marshal Paul Godfrey as the Commander of UKSC. He joined the RAF in 1991, a fighter pilot, and then Station Commander of RAF Lossiemouth. 


• UKSC will work closely with our international allies

• The British personnel drawn across the tri-services, will include personnel from the US Space Force.

• will, when fully operational, assume command of RAF Fylingdales as well as our strategic military satellites SKYNET and the present UK Space Operations Centre (UKSpOC).


As followers of this site will know, RAF Fylingdales in North Yorkshire provides our early-warning system to both the United States and United Kingdom against surprise missile attacks.


At the same time UKSpOc protects all British assets in orbit.

Space Three

The PM's announcement last November also signalled "a more joined-up approach for the future military”, Mr Sables reports.

I have always emphasised that Interdependence and Independence are the hallmarks of our highly successful armed forces. This is essential for our future safety.

Mr Sables also reports that the PM's announcement affirms our intention to launch British satellites, as well as confirmation of the United Kingdom’s first rocket launch from Scotland in 2022.

Space Four

Mr Sables then addresses that enigmatic question, "Why does it exist?"

Strategies in space move closer to "disruption and denial" of assets, not their destruction. [i]

Mr Sables confirms that Alexandra Stickings, Research Fellow for Space Policy and Security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), remarked that many people, both here within the UK as well as the global community have a fear of Russian and Chinese activity in space. This is so, despite emphasising that such research and exploration must be "mutual to all humankind."

It is slightly alarming that the United Kingdom takes the view that we may face potential threat from adversaries in space; and that this threat is already present, and moreover, evolving rapidly, Mr Sables emphasises.

Space Five

And this threat is further underlined when, last month, NATO took it one step further - resolving to respond to threats from space.

In other words, NATO, the direct outcome of World War II is now, after 80 years, not only maintaining its stance and which has guaranteed peace and security, but imperative for us all, is extending its field of operations to Space.

Mr Sables emphasises that we are dealing with a new domain.

We must, therefore, protect our assets that are vital to on-the-ground operations. In so doing, Central Government takes a crucial step in the right direction by forming the UK Space Command.

Space Six

The excellent report by Tom Sables in Forces Net (links below) winds up with an important question … Who is behind it?

The joint command of UKSC will operate from its headquarters based at RAF High Wycombe.

Space Command and the Space Directorate 'are responsible for, space policy and space coordination UK Space Command will work closely with Strategic Command to ensure they can deliver modern working cohesively together capabilities.

• UK Space Agency

• National Space Council

• UK Space Command


• pace Directorate

• Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL)

Five structures, all working cohesively together!

Space Seven

I think, in conclusion, Mr Sables has enabled me to see an aspect of life, service in the future, and command structures that many citizens will be unaware even exist.

The short video that accompanies Mr Sable’s Forces Report is an absolute must, and I will insert this later this evening.

Future

23rd Century … … …

Footnotes

[i] as reported by an Expert to Forces News in March 2021

17 February 2022
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022

Sources

1. Feature Article by Tom Sables in Forces Net dated July 30, 2021

2. Video Feature 1 : A very comprehensive analysis by Group Captain Edward Watkin RAF, Deputy, Space Support, UK Space Command

3. Video Feature 2 : A superb analysis of how NATO responds within the context of UK Space Command is located in this website’s Video Room

Video Links