LONDON, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The launch of UK's hi-tech military satellite that is claimed to offer British armed forces worldwide communications channels was delayed because of a last-minute mechanical error, Sky News reported on Sunday.

    Skynet 5A, part of a 3.6 billion pounds (about 7 billion U.S. dollars) British project, was set to blast off aboard an Ariane rocket from the European spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana on Saturday.

    When launched, the system, which is said by its designers as the best of its type in the world, will provide troops with a new generation of secure communications links.

    The Skynet 5 program is said to give a five-fold improvement in performance over the existing Skynet 4 "constellation" of four satellites currently used by the Ministry of Defense to communicate with commanders around the world.

    Its launch, scheduled just before 11:00 p.m., had to be put back 24 hours because of concerns over a "water deluge" system .

    The system is designed to pump out million of gallons of water at the moment of take-off to cool the launchpad and deaden vibrations to protect the cargo on board.

    The rocket is also carrying India's INSAT 4B civilian telecommunications satellite.