SUMMARY

  Logica strongly supports the UK government focus on ESA as a mechanism for implementing UK space programmes. Our work on ESA programmes over the past 30 years has given us a strong position in export markets around the world.

  Government's role as customer and shop window for UK industry is one which government could exploit more, not only to help industry's export activities but also to ensure better value for its own money in both the short and long term.

  The MOD's Skynet-5 programme is an important example of government as customer, and the impact its buying decisions can have on British industry's export potential.

  Gailileo is a wonderful opportunity for British industry and British government objectives to move forward hand in hand. Achieving that happy result will require proactive and across-department action from government.

  We note that software is increasingly crucial in making new space programmes successful. UK industry leads Europe in space software and government should continue to build on that success.

  Finally, although not discussed further below, we note that space helps to attract bright young people into the engineering and science industries, an objective which Logica strongly supports.

ESA

  The European Space Agency (ESA) has been highly successful in sponsoring a space industry which is broadly competitive on the world market in the sectors in which ESA has chosen to focus. Logica has benefited from ESA programmes for over 20 years and continues to do so, using ESA business to help develop new technologies which underpin our export initiatives. In a changing world ESA has to adapt, and we consider the following points to be particularly important in that context:

(1)  At a time of tightening budgets across Europe, some national space agencies are finding that their national space facilities are under-utilised. ESA is now facing pressure to use national facilities for its own programmes a course of action which will jeopardise the continued existence of ESA's own facilities, such as operations facilities at ESOC and test facilities at ESTEC. Logica benefits enormously from the contract work associated with ESA's operations, especially in giving us technology to sell on the world market, eg to Intelsat, Eutelsat and Inmarsat. For Example, ourc £2 million contract to develop ESA's multi-satellite control system led to export contracts worth in excess of £12 million. In our view, these spin-off benefits would be unlikely to survive a shift of ESA's operations activities to national agencies, even UK ones. Government should ensure that enhancements to industry's global competitiveness are included in the benefits taken into account in deciding on its policy in this matter.

(2)  ESA's role was originally one of helping industry to create a technology and management base with which to address space programmes. As industry has matured, that role has become less appropriate. The recent consolidation of the space prime contracts into three, and in the near future two, groups suggests that ESA should take on the role of regulator of the space industry, at least as concerns ESA's own programmes. The challenge is to foster a thriving supplier base below the level of the primes when those primes are tending to vertically integrate. Software, in which Logica is a leading supplier, is an example of a technology which is changing rapidly driven by sectors other than space. Europe's long term success in space requires that the latest software technology can feed in to ESA and national programmes. ESA needs to work with governments, prime-contractors and mid and lower level suppliers to address this issue.

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

  The space business is dominated by government at national and European level. Government is a regulator, a user, an international negotiator and a sponsor.

  Government as user is often overlooked as a major influence on the competitiveness of industry. The form of government's procurement influences whether the resulting product is competitive in world markets. If government departments procure the same service separately and for short periods at a time, the result will be a fragmented supply industry. Whereas if government departments come together to place long term contracts for the service, the result will yield better value for money for government and a more viable industry. Industry is able to invest in service and productivity improvements by virtue of the larger business base offered to it—a process familiar in several sectors of public spending such as rail transport. This process of consolidation across government is happening, albeit slowly, in earth observation, and is to be encouraged.

  Where government is the sole or main customer for UK industry's outputs, another role it can and should play is as a shop window for industry's capabilities. DTI understands this role well but the same is not always true of other government departments. It is in the interests of all government departments to ensure that its suppliers are commercially viable—where government is the main customer in industry's home market, only government can act as the "reference" for industry's attempts to win exports. This process is true for satellite meteorology, where the largest home customer for satellite meteorology is Eumetsat (the co co-operative of Europe's meteorological services). While the Meteorological Office is generally supportive of British industry efforts to sell products and services globally, Eumetsat does not fully acknowledge its duty as monopoly customer to assist the export efforts of its European suppliers. British industry has had some successes in exporting satellite meteorology systems (eg MMS in Brazil, Logica in Japan) which it is in everyone's interests to build on.

MILITARY SPACE

  The Ministry of Defence is such an important customer of Britain's space industry that its programmes have a major influence on the health of the whole sector. MOD is currently in the process of choosing a supplier for the Skynet-5 next generation of communications satellites and Logica is a partner in the Matra Marconi Space team bidding for that contract. We note that MOD has invited USA industry to bid for the supply of Skynet-5, an invitation not extended to UK industry by the American Department of Defense for its equivalent procurements. We urge the Committee to highlight the impact of MOD's buying decisions on the export potential of British industry.

GALILEO

  Logica sees the EC/ESA Galileo satellite navigation programme as an important opportunity to expand our transport telematic activities and thereby open up new export opportunities. We recognise that we must win a major role in the programme to a large extent by our own efforts. However, we also note that British industry will only be allowed to hold key roles in the programme if the British government is proactively supporting Galileo in EC and ESA forums. The committee might like to consider whether all relevant government departments are working towards this objective in a "joined up" fashion.

SOFTWARE

  Software plays an increasing and increasingly critical part in space programmes. UK industry has been particularly successful in winning leading software roles in Europe's space programmes, and increasingly outside Europe. Examples of Logica's success include major roles in commercial export programmes such as Globalstar, Iridium, ICO, Eutelsat and Intelsat. We recommend that UK policy should continue to build on this success story.

  Logica provides consultancy and computer-based systems to address requirements of space agencies, operators, regulators, service providers, manufacturers and users. The following examples are intended to illustrate the range of our activities.

Space Science

  all of the software onboard the Huygens probe to Saturn's moon Titan

  software onboard the Rosetta comet probe

  ground control facilities for most ESA missions, including XMM and ISO

  ground processing facilities for science data and operators, eg for XMM

Earth Observation and Meteorology

  operational ground processing of meteorological data for the Eumetsat Meteosat and MSG programmes

  real-time ground processing of imagery for the Japanese MTSAT programme

  system to provide "one-stop-shop" Internet-based access to earth observation data for the European Commission

  monitoring of the UK potato crop for the British Potato Council and of land use for English Nature

  study for the EC of the use of earth observation for the insurance industry and for the farming industry

Satellite Communications and Broadcasting

  software allowing roaming between satellite and terrestrial networks for Iridium and ICO

  messaging and service management software for Globalstar and Iridium

  ground control systems and software for Eutelsat, Inmarsat, Turksat, Intelsat

  software to model radio interference between satellite networks to regulators and operators in Europe and the USA

Navigation

  safety critical computer subsystems of ESA's EGNOS satellite navigation augmentation project

  applications of satellite navigation in the ESA Galileo and EC Galileosat programme

  analysis of synergy between satellite navigation, earth observation and communications for the EC

  application of satellite navigation as part of fleet management systems for London taxis and for buses in Bologna

Military Space

  ground network elements of MOD's Skynet-4 and Skynet-5 programmes

Launchers

  information system for the range safety officers at the Kourou launch site calculating in real-time the actual trajectory of the Ariane rocket and any excursions outside its permitted track

18 February 2000