Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Harv Smyth's speech at the UK Space Power Conference

Well, good morning, everyone. I think I am in control of the PowerPoint. There we go. The Minister has just said to me it’s boiling up there so I’m glad I wore my woollen Spitfire suit.

It’s really good to see so many distinguished guests, colleagues, allies and friends here and welcome to the UK Space Power Conference here in what is a relatively unexpected sunny London, which is great. It’s so good to see lots of familiar faces in the audience – I’m slightly worried that there’s a sea of light blue at the back there to hold me to account on what I’m about to say.

But I’m particularly glad to see so many new faces and to meet so many new characters from across the space enterprise, scientists, academics, industry experts. We’ve got some leaders in finance and of course, there is a good group here from across government. So thank you all for supporting the conference. I really do from a personal perspective, I appreciate that.

I stood here just a few months ago alongside many of my fellow international air and space chiefs at what was the Global Air and Space Chiefs Conference. And then I outlined how the RAF is now formally on a journey to becoming Europe’s first sixth generation air force with the Global Combat Air Programme and now our new Collaborative Combat Air programme, the Storm Fighter, operating alongside F-35, Typhoons and a range of many other autonomous systems. But these capabilities will never fulfil their potential without space. And that’s why these conferences and this discussion over the next two days are so very important.

From my perspective, I don’t think I can get to a sixth-generation air force if I still have a fourth-generation space force. And that is a topic that I’m hoping we can cover over discussions in the coming two days. Space is obviously a prerequisite for modern air power. Every element of a sixth-generation air force depends intimately on space, the networks, the targeting, the navigation, the command and control.