UK Builds A £65M Borealis System To Shield Satellites From Space-Based Threats

The UK government has pledged £65 million to develop a new Borealis system designed to defend satellites from attack. Announced in early March, the Borealis programme is intended to help the UK military monitor and respond to threats in orbit by aggregating data from across space operations.

Borealis System: A Response To Growing Challenges In Space

The investment reflects the growing dependence on space-based services, not just for defence but for critical infrastructure power grids, transport, and communications, all of which rely heavily on orbital assets. The war in Ukraine has underlined the strategic value of these systems. Spacex’s Starlink network, for example, has become an essential tool for battlefield communication.

Borealis system responds to what senior defence figures call a “contested” domain. Back in 2019, US officials began publicly warning that space was no longer a passive environment. By 2021, there were claims that jamming and cyber-attacks against satellites had become routine. When Borealis was unveiled in 2025, UK Space Command’s Major General Paul Tedman made it clear that space had joined cyberspace and the deep ocean as theatres of global tension.

Securing The Full System

A space system isn’t limited to satellites. It includes ground infrastructure, the users on Earth, and the links that connect them. These other segments are often easier to target than spacecraft themselves, which means comprehensive security must extend far beyond orbit. There are physical threats too debris, radiation, and solar interference can all disable satellites without malicious intent. But when it comes to targeted attacks, many systems still lack defences. Historically, the focus has been on making satellites function in space, all of which added layers of security, often meant additional weight, complexity, and cost.

Securing space infrastructure properly means designing systems with threat resilience from the outset. That includes the entire lifecycle: development, launch, operation, and application. A leaked satellite blueprint, for example, could give an adversary the information needed to exploit specific weaknesses, something far harder to address once the asset is already in orbit. This challenge is compounded by the growing role of commercial space companies and start-ups, which may not approach security with the same rigour as established aerospace firms. With more organisations involved, the risks grow more diffuse.

It’s also not just about satellites. The threat landscape spans cyber, information, personnel, and supply chains, mirroring the challenges faced by other critical systems. Subsea cable sabotage in the Baltic Sea and deep intrusions into global telecoms networks show how attackers are operating across domains, moving fluidly between physical and digital.

Defence Or Deterrence?

Retroactively bolting security onto existing systems is difficult and expensive. Policy questions also arise: governments don’t have the budget or legal authority to secure everything, while private firms may resist adopting tougher standards unless compelled to do so. Space infrastructure is global. That means national regulations can’t fully align, making coordinated protection difficult. Raising public understanding of why this infrastructure matters is one step, but alone, it won’t be enough. As threats grow and vulnerabilities become more apparent, resilience may prove just as critical as defence. In other words, if protection fails, how do we carry on without the systems we’ve come to depend on?