Britain must 'boldly go' to protect itself

BRITAIN can only truly secure its defence by becoming a "fully fledged space nation", experts say.

- Marco Giannangeli

The warning by the Council on Geostrategy think tank comes as China restructures its armed forces with a renewed emphasis on space. Russia is also threatening to place an antisatellite nuclear weapon in orbit.

And both have announced a joint programme to install a base on the Moon within 10 years.

There are more than 10,000 satellites in space today, a jump from the 2,200 which orbited the Earth just five years ago.

Disruption of these satellites would affect many aspects of daily life, from GPS navigation to data transfers and even ATMs.