PFI in the sky, or pie in the sky? Privatising military space

摘要

The Uk has made use of dedicated, national military satellites for communications since November 1969. The replacement of the current system, Skynet 4, which will reach the end of its design lifetime early in the next century, is currently under consideration. Possible options which have been mooted to date include a new generation of a national satellite system (Skynet 5). Or one of several International collaborative projects. However, these appear to have been superseded by a new ossibility-a privately, commercially Funded national system under the government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI).