BOREALIS goes live six months early

Image courtesy CGI 

BOREALIS is a unique, UK-made system which underpins military operations around the world. It is being deployed in the National Space Operations Centre, which delivers the UK’s space surveillance and protection mission. It will strengthen the UK’s ability to protect its interests in space and support the safe, secure, and sustainable use of space globally. The system delivers enhanced Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and a new Space Command and Control (C2) capability at the core of the National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC). 

Leveraging CGI’s deep domain expertise, BOREALIS provides a sovereign SDA capability that enhances resilience, enables independent decision-making and ensures UK Space priorities are maintained. Designed to support international collaboration from the outset, it also creates the foundation for more effective ‘burden-sharing’ with international allies and partners.

Luke Pollard MP, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, said: “Space is now a contested domain. Protecting our satellites from adversaries keeps our economy moving and keeps us all safe. As we increase defence spending we are investing in new defensive capabilities in all domains, including UK space-based capabilities.”

Space Minister Liz Lloyd MP said: “BOREALIS represents a significant step forward in the UK’s ability to monitor, protect and defend the critical space capabilities. This joint investment by the UK Space Agency and Space Command, backed by British expertise and jobs, ensures the UK remains a world leader in understanding and protecting the space environment for generations to come.”

Major General Paul Tedman, Commander of UK Space Command, said: “Protecting and defending the invisible front line in space requires us to see and understand what is happening in orbit and then make decisions at machine speed. Noctis-1, with Noctis-2 swifty to follow, will provide us the sovereign eyes we need to augment our space domain awareness. Data is the coin of the realm in space operations. BOREALIS exploits edge software to make sense of the vast amounts of information we ingest and then model actionable choices to my operators in the National Space Operations Centre. Together, they represent a significant enhancement to the UK’s space capability.”

Neil Timms, Senior Vice President of Space, Defence & Intelligence UK & Australia at CGI said: “Delivering BOREALIS to operational readiness half a year early highlights CGI’s track record in delivering complex, secure space systems. By combining deep domain expertise with modern engineering practices, we’ve provided a scalable capability that can adapt as mission demands and the threat landscape continue to evolve.”

The declaration of IOC marks a significant uplift in system performance for operational users including increased automation, new and improved visualisation tools, integration of additional data sources and more accurate orbit determination. Drawing on CGI’s long-standing experience delivering secure, mission-critical space systems, the capability will allow military and civil personnel to keep pace with the rapidly increasing complexity of space operations with greater accuracy and higher levels of assurance.

IOC has required a comprehensive support solution to be put in place, together with the delivery of a full training programme and the culmination of a comprehensive accreditation and assurance process. A capability assessment process has been put in place to accelerate the integration of state of the art tools and technology.

Delivered by a team of over 100 expert engineers drawn from across the UK space ecosystem, including multiple Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), BOREALIS is being delivered using an Agile approach, allowing the MoD and the UKSA to adapt quickly to new technology and a rapidly evolving threat landscape. Deployment on the MoD cloud environment also provides the flexibility to scale rapidly as operation demands dictate, while reinforcing CGI’s approach of combining sovereign delivery capability with collaboration across industry and government partners.

CGI has been delivering complex, mission-critical secure space software systems for clients across Europe, Asia and North America for 50 years. CGI has been working with the MoD as part of its transformation of space situational awareness since 2016.