Description
Up until the 1991 Gulf War, the British Armed Forces, particularly the Royal Air Force and the British Army, had not attributed much importance to outer space as a military domain. Despite the increasing interest that the British Armed Forces have displayed since then, there is not any comprehensive study that examines how the UK’s defence community has conceptualised outer space. This paper aims to answer the following question: How did the relevant British defence organisations’ space postures evolve since 2014? This period was characterised by the return of state-based threats, the intensification of international competition, and the emergence of several initiatives in Britain to harness the military potential of outer space, including the creation of UK Space Command and the development of the Defence Space Portfolio. The focus on the UK, a spacefaring middle power, can contribute to better capture how middle powers have adapted to the space domain, as the literature has been largely biased towards studying the United States. This paper theorises about the factors that have influenced the continuities and changes of the UK’s military space posture, distinguishing among the postures of the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy, and the British Army. In so doing, it offers a conceptual contribution to the literature on British defence transformation and military innovation studies.
