Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
China's BeiDou and Russian GLONASS
sign new deal to rival America's GPS satellite navigation
Sat, February 5, 2022, 1:30 AM
South China Morning Post
China and Russia have agreed to coordinate their satellite
navigation systems as the two countries further solidify their partnership to
rival the US-owned GPS.
This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed "unprecedented" close ties with China at a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing ahead of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
A total of 16 deals were confirmed during the meeting, including one for 10 billion cubic metres (353 billion cubic feet) of Russian gas to be supplied to China per year via a new pipeline.
An agreement was also signed between the operators of the Russian high-altitude satellite system GLONASS and China's BeiDou, "on cooperation in the field of ensuring the complementarity of the global navigation satellite systems in terms of system timescales", according to the document list issued by the Kremlin.
The details of the agreement were not disclosed. But it follows and further develops a 2018 agreement between the two governments to shape a framework for the two systems joining forces.
Titled "Cooperation in the peaceful use of the BeiDou and GLONASS", that deal took effect in 2019.
Moscow and Beijing had then pledged to cooperate in the compatibility and interoperability of BeiDou and GLONASS. The new agreement's aim to ensure "the complementarity of system timescales" was part of the compatibility and interoperability effort, experts said.
"That is to say, both sides would coordinate well during their programming to maximise the use of resources of both systems in the future," Clark Shu, telecommunications researcher at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, said.
"For example, when a BeiDou satellite covers a Moscow area between 0700 to 0900 [hours], a GLONASS satellite could be spared to cover the St Petersburg area during the same period or take over Moscow from 1000 to 1200 [hours]."
China launched its BeiDou, or Northern Dipper (the ancient Chinese name for the seven brightest stars of the Ursa Major constellation) programme in the 1990s. This came amid concerns that its People's Liberation Army (PLA) would be vulnerable without a satellite navigation system alternative to the GPS (Global Positioning System), owned by the US government and operated by the US Air Force.
BeiDou's third and current network of 30 satellites was completed and began offering global services in July 2020, when Beijing and Washington were going through bitter "decoupling" and rising military tensions.
Apart from its military applications, the BeiDou system, with a 1.2m accuracy of positioning that surpasses the GPS' 5-10m range, and added services such as text messaging, also aims to draw the global civilian satellite navigation market worth billions of US dollars.
Russia's GLONASS, or Global Navigation Satellite System, started as a Soviet programme during the Cold War, and was restored in 2011. Now, with a constellation of 24 satellites in orbit, it has great advantages for military uses - thanks to its strong anti-jamming capability.
"BeiDou and GLONASS each have their own advantages. If they could be deeply linked or even interoperable, they could form an ideal navigation system, which would not only facilitate cross-border transport between the two sides in peacetime, but also improve the stability and survivability of the whole navigation system by relying on each other in wartime," Chinese military expert Qian Liyan told Russia's Sputnik news agency.
US spy plane pilots use China's satellite navigation system as backup
In the 2018 deal, Beijing and Moscow also agreed to build
ground monitoring stations for each other's networks on home territory, which
could help improve the networks' global coverage and accuracy.
Operators in the two nations, the China Satellite Navigation System Committee and Russia's State Space Corporation (Roscosmos), have over the past few years established a monitoring and evaluation service platform for both systems.
They have conducted phase 1 tests for providing joint services to Beijing's multinational Belt and Road Initiative, and together developed satnav applications in cross-border transport and satnav chips, according to the Chinese committee.
Translation
隨著兩國進一步鞏固夥伴關係以與美國擁有的 GPS 競爭，中國和俄羅斯已同意協調其衛星導航系統。
在此之前，俄羅斯總統普京在冬奧會開幕式前與中國領導人習近平在北京會晤時稱讚與中國的“前所未有的”密切關係。
會議期間共確認了 16 項交易，其中一項是通過一條新管道每年向中國供應 100 億立方米（3530 億立方英尺）的俄羅斯天然氣。
根據由克里姆林宮發布的文件清單，俄羅斯高空衛星系統 GLONASS 的運營商與中國的北斗還簽署了一項協議，“確保全球導航衛星系統在系統時間尺度方面的互補性領域開展合作”。
該協議的細節沒有披露。但它遵循並進一步製定了兩國政府之間的 2018 年協議，以形成兩個系統聯合力量的框架。
該協議名為“合作和平利用北斗和GLONASS”，於 2019 年生效。
莫斯科和北京隨後承諾在北斗和 GLONASS 的兼容性和互操作性方面進行合作。專家表示，新協議旨在確保“系統時間尺度的互補性”, 是兼容性和互操作性工作的一部分。
中國電子科技大學電信研究員Clark Shu 說: “也就是說，雙方在編程過程中會很好地協調，以便在未來最大限度地利用兩個系統的資源” 。
“例如，當一顆北斗衛星在 0700 到 0900 [小時] 之間覆蓋莫斯科地區時，一顆 GLONASS 衛星可以在同一時期用於覆蓋聖彼得堡地區,或從 1000 到 1200 [小時] 接管覆蓋莫斯科。”
中國於 1990 年代啟動了北斗或北斗七星（大熊座七顆最亮恆星的中國古代名稱）計劃。這是因為人們擔心如果沒有衛星導航系統來替代美國政府擁有並由美國空軍運營的 GPS（全球定位系統），其人民解放軍 (PLA) 將處於弱勢。
北斗的第三個也是目前的 30 顆衛星網絡已於 2020 年 7 月建成並開始提供全球服務，當時北京和華盛頓正經歷痛苦的“脫鉤”和不斷升級的軍事緊張局勢。
除了軍事應用外，北斗系統的1.2m定位精度超過GPS的5-10m範圍，並增加了短信等服務，亦旨在吸引價值數十億美元的全球民用衛星導航市場.
俄羅斯的 GLONASS，即全球導航衛星系統，始於冷戰時期的蘇聯計劃，並於 2011 年恢復。現在，在軌道上它擁有 24 顆衛星的羣組，由於其強大的抗干擾能力, 在軍事用途有很大優勢。
中國軍事專家Qian Liyan告訴俄羅斯衛星通訊社:“北斗和GLONASS各有優勢，如果能夠深度聯動甚至互通，就可以形成一個理想的導航系統，既可以在平時方便雙方的跨境運輸，在戰時整個導航系統相互依賴, 又可以提高穩定性和生存能力”。
美國間諜飛機飛行員使用中國的衛星導航系統作為後備
在 2018 年的協議中，北京和莫斯科還同意在本國領土上為彼此的網絡建立地面監測站，這有助於提高網絡的全球覆蓋範圍和準確性。
兩國的運營商,即中國衛星導航系統委員會和俄羅斯國家航天局（Roscosmos）在過去幾年中為這兩個系統建立了監測和評估服務平台。
據中國委員會稱，他們已經進行了為北京的跨國“一帶一路”倡議提供聯合服務的第一階段測試，並共同開發了跨境運輸中的衛星導航應用程式和衛星導航芯片。
So, China and
Russia will coordinate their satellite navigation systems as the two countries
further solidify their partnership to rival the US-owned GPS. One of the benefits
will be to improve the stability and survivability of the whole navigation
system by relying on each other in wartime. On national security matters, I am
wondering whether they will trust each other to that extent.
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