Work for ground control of new EU satellite navigation system, Galileo, will go to France or Germany if Airbus wins bidA potential €200m contract between the European Space Agency and Airbus in Portsmouth will be moved to the continent because of Brexit, the managing director of Airbus said on Wednesday. Airbus will move all the work for the ground control for the new EU satellite navigation system, Galileo, from the UK to France or Germany should it win the bid. Colin Paynter, managing director of the Portsmouth based Airbus Defence and Space, told MPs that it was “committed” to this move as part of its bid for the contract, which it submitted on 24 April. Galileo is a new 26-satellite €10bn navigation system recently launched by the EU to rival the Global Postitioning System (GPS) developed by the US military. Paynter told MPs he supported the government’s recent request for the EU space sector procurement process to be paused to allow the UK and EU to come to an arrangement.

Source: The Guardian May 09, 2018 13:13 UTC