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| Photo: Mark Williamson |
George Freeman MP says the UK must build a wartime space economy to stop Russia, stand up to Trump and keep billion-pound space firms from being seized by foreign powers.
by Clive Simpson
LONDON, 12 December – A week after former UK space minister George Freeman warned that Europe is “already at war”, his stark message has gained added resonance amid fresh NATO concern that Russia may widen its confrontation with the West.
Speaking at Space-Comm Expo in Glasgow on 4 December, Freeman told industry leaders that the UK must move faster, think bigger and “speak with one voice” if it is to secure a leading role in the next era of global space technology and national defence.
His comments now sit against a broader geopolitical warning from NATO’s incoming secretary-general, Mark Rutte, who said this week that Europe must prepare for the possibility of conflict with Russia within five years – a scenario that underscores Freeman’s call for a “wartime space economy”.
‘We are already at war in Europe’
Freeman, a former Minister of State for Science and Space and now chair of the Space 4 Earth Fund, praised Scotland’s rise as “Europe’s premier space cluster”, but used his keynote to deliver an unusually direct assessment of the threats facing the continent.
“We are at war in Europe,” he said. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take for journalists in London to recognise this. Putin is in Turkey, we’re fighting in Ukraine today, and if Ukraine lose, we will see Russia start to move all the way to the eastern border.”
He compared the current geopolitical climate to Britain's slow mobilisation in the late 1930s.
“It took us from 1938 to 1941 to properly scale up and build a wartime economy. We’re miles away from doing it. We’ve got to move much more quickly, and we’ve got to stop shooting down $200 drones with £10 million missiles.”
Space as frontline capability
Freeman argued that space technologies – from Earth observation to quantum encryption and smart telecommunications – are already central to modern defence and supply-chain resilience.
“We have got to embrace the full technology suite and space has a huge part to play in that. The dual-use piece is enormous,” he said, recalling early COBRA meetings on Ukraine where officials relied on commercial satellite imagery from SpaceX.
He welcomed the EU’s recent €1.5 billion defence initiative and noted UK spending of around £400 million on defence innovation, but said the government still lacks a clear picture of how its R&D investment translates into private-sector growth.
“The best metric is how much public R&D turns into private sector R&D. Government doesn’t have the number yet,” he warned. “Unless we’re able to say how much is going into space, how do we track it?”
Freeman criticised the pace and structure of UK government support, arguing that small, slow grants “aren’t going to build a global space sector”, and called instead for regulatory leadership, especially around sustainable space standards tied to finance and insurance.
UK strengths risk being overlooked
Despite the severity of his warnings, Freeman said the UK remains far more competitive than many realise.
“Do you know which country is second behind the US in the amount of money raised to fund space companies? It’s the UK. Who knew?”
While the UK holds roughly five percent of the global commercial space market – including broadcasting – it attracted 17 percent of global space venture capital last year.
“It’s testimony to the quality of the companies here… we are the second biggest space investment economy in the world.”
He highlighted clusters in Cornwall, South Wales, Surrey and across Scotland, and name-checked several UK space companies he believes could become billion-pound scale-ups if backed properly.
Trump, tariffs and shifting trade winds
Freeman also pointed to a global economic reordering accelerated by political instability and a more protectionist United States.
“It’s not often American presidents decide they can run on an isolationist, anti-free-trade ticket and tariffs. That is a huge opportunity for us,” he said.
He argued that Southeast Asian nations now view the UK as a reliable free-trading partner in a “rules-based system”, while Gulf states are investing “very heavily” in space technologies ranging from agri-tech to transport and future digital economies.
Critical moment for UK space
Freeman closed with a warning that without decisive action, the UK could lose its emerging space champions to foreign acquisition or overseas listings.
“We’re not going to beat China or America big,” he said, “but we could meet them here in Scotland… If we get this right, we can be a player helping to lead the standards for the emerging global commercial space economy.”
“This sector looks to me like the biotech sector in the 1990s. If we speak with one voice and tell government we are essential, we can grow this into the lifeline sector in the next 20 years.”
His speech, part celebration and part alarm call, drew strong applause from delegates.
“I’m going to continue to be controversial and insurgent,” Freeman concluded, “because this sector is one of the most exciting in the UK – and we need to move much more quickly.”
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This report by Clive Simpson from Space-Comm Expo, Glasgow, 3-4 December 2025.
Why the global space sector needs urgent regulation - by George Freeman, ROOM Space Journal #37, Autumn 2025
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