SPECIAL FEATURE
Britain’s
Brexit Bind Own GNSS or not?
M
arch 31, 2019. That’s when Brexit comes into effect. That’s also when UK will no longer be part of the prestigious Galileo satellite navigation program of the European Commission. That is unless some other deal is hammered out, albeit on a later date. But as of now, this is final. After investing £1.4 billion and years into Galileo, Britain finally walked away from the project in November 2018. Now, the UK government has set up a taskforce to look into the proposal to launch a satellite navigation constellation of its own. It has even gone one step ahead and earmarked about £92 million for the project ($118 million) from the Brexit readiness fund. While there is no denying that the UK has the technical knowhow to build its own satellite navigation system, spending billions and decades on a totally new system just doesn’t sound rational, unless of course it becomes a matter of prestige.
Why it makes little sense? Satellite navigation systems are expensive and complicated affair. They are usually known to face delays and cost over-runs. Galileo itself faced decades of delays, difficulties and additional costs. It would have taken 18 years to build before being fully operational in 2021. In this background, it would take many, many years before UK can even have a system in orbit. The cost of building Galileo has already touched almost $11.6 billion from its initial estimate of $3 billion. Then there is an annual maintenance cost. For Galileo, it is estimated to be around €800 million ($927 million). This is way
12
www.geospatialworld.net | March-April 2019
There is no denying that the United Kingdom has the technical know-how to build its own satellite navigation system, but spending billions and decades on a totally new setup just doesn’t sound rational. By Anusuya Datta
