March 15, 2010: Britain is building a fourth Skynet military satellite. In the last few years, Britain has upgraded the ground control facilities for the Skynet birds, which are getting heavier use because of the growing number of UAVs entering service. These aircraft are controlled via satellite link, which requires a lot of bandwidth to handle all the live video being transmitted. Skynet will increasingly be a system that controls robotic systems, including hunter-killer UAVs.
The current Skynet satellites became operational two years ago. The Skynet satellites cost over half a billion dollars each, and are equipped with anti-jamming equipment and special military communications capabilities. Skynet enables military communications to be secure (encrypted) and reliable, even if hostile nations tries to interfere. But for the moment, the primary task is to support operations in Afghanistan, where a growing number of remotely controlled UAVs roam the skies, terminating enemy fighters on the ground.
