Orbital Shield

A new vision for tactical Space Control

Orbital Shield is Shield Space’s concept architecture for a distributed orbital defence layer—delivering real-time attribution, inspection, and area denial from UK-built, autonomously operated CubeSats.

Drawing on our work developing Orbital Eye, this system envisions swarms of manoeuvrable satellites capable of acting independently in contested orbital zones. Built around software-defined autonomy, Orbital Shield offers a new model for deterrence that is persistent, scalable, and affordable.

Affordable. Deployable. British.

Unlike traditional monolithic platforms, Orbital Shield is designed for UK defence budgets and Future UK launch vehicles. It aligns with the UK’s sovereign space ambitions—providing an end-to-end capability using only domestic technology, launch, and operations.

By combining rapid-prototyped hardware with our combat-tested autonomy stack, we aim to unlock orbital control at NATO-relevant scale.

From Concept to Capability

Orbital Shield is not a paper exercise. It builds on technical foundations already in motion in operational theatres and brings them to the Space Domain. As the capability matures, we will work with government and Defence users to shape Shield into a modular, deployable toolkit for persistent orbital defence.