In backing the EU-based Galileo project, Britain had opted to seek some independence from the US-provided Global Positioning System (GPS). This dossier documents how this ambition was frustrated and tracks other developments in the field. 

Alex Herne in The Guardian, 26 June 2020:  “The UK government’s plan to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in a satellite broadband company has been described as “nonsensical” by experts, who say the company doesn’t even make the right type of satellite the country needs after Brexit.” click here

University of Sussex website, March 2019: “In November 2018 Prime Minister Theresa May pulled out of the Galileo project, a project designed as a rival to the USA’s GPS to which the UK has contributed £1.2 billion, as the EU began excluding the UK from security aspects of the project’s development in preparation for Brexit. While the UK could still receive a basic signal from Galileo when it’s operational, the country would be excluded from the more precise military signal.”  click here

Callum Hoare in The Express, 10 December 2019: “One of the benefits of Galileo was that the EU would not have to rely on GPS during military operations, but it could also be a drawback to not have a back-up system if their satellites are scrambles.” click here

Nature magazine, December 2018: “The row over the the United Kingdom’s attempt to stay fully involved in the European Union’s global satellite-navigation (satnav) system, Galileo, after it departs the bloc, is back in the headlines after science minister Sam Gyimah cited it in his resignation statement last month.” click here

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