The Financial Times has reported that UK may launch a rival GNSS to Galileo.
The paper states that, in light of disagreement over attempts to restrict national access to sensitive security information after Brexit, UK is considering setting up a satellite navigation system to rival the EU's €10 (£8.7, $12.2) billion Galileo project.
The FT adds that the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark, is taking legal advice on reclaiming the €1.4 billion that UK has invested in Galileo since the project started in 2003.
The paper explains that the European Commission has started to exclude Britain and its companies from sensitive future work on Galileo ahead of the country’s exit from the EU in a year’s time - a move which the Secretary of State said threatened security collaboration . . "We have made it clear we do not accept the Commission’s position on Galileo, which could seriously damage mutually-beneficial collaboration on security and defence matters. Britain has played a big part in Galileo so far, carrying out about 15% of the work on it; if Britain were excluded, it could result in years of delays and higher costs for the project stretching into the billions”.
He also promised to ensure that the UK space industry was not deprived of future opportunities: "We will continue to work with the UK space sector on this issue and, through our modern Industrial Strategy, will ensure the UK can realise the opportunities of the commercial space age.”
The report adds that Britain’s space sector is growing four-times faster than the rest of the UK economy, and the country has a 7% share of the global space industry.
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