The British military are getting ready to launch their latest satellite called Skynet 5B into space. The total cost of this project is £3.6bn. The new satellite will help improve communications with the British forces stations around the world especially with the Afghan conflict.

It is said that 5B has two and a half times more bandwidth than its predecessor Skynet 4, this will allow for much faster communications between troops and the command centers. With the UK also planning to use UAV’s in the battlefield they will be able to send pictures and stream video a lot fast than before. The satellite also has the ability to give a specific location more bandwidth with the ability to direct its antenna to a specific location.

More information can be found here.

Tags: bbc, uk, military, satellite, communications, skynet