Global Positioning System GPS Chinese

China's new GPS-like navigation system called part of buildup

Special to World Tribune.com
EAST-ASIA-INTEL.COM
Thursday, April 26, 2007

China is setting up a satellite navigation system to challenge the U.S. global position system � a key strategic asset for precision-guided weapons.

China launched a Compass navigation satellite April 14 that is part of its new satellite navigation system, official Chinese press reports said.

"This latest Compass-M1 satellite, orbiting at 21,500 kilometers above the earth, is part of China's plan to construct the Compass navigational system," the newspaper People�s Daily quoted officials sources as saying.

A Long March 3-A carrier rocket blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province on April 14 with a navigation satellite aboard. AP/Xinhua, Li Gang "Over the next few years China will launch more Compass series satellites to meet its own and others navigation needs by 2008, gradually building a global system through network construction and experimentation," the newspaper said. �The system will chiefly serve the national economy by providing efficient positioning services for transportation, meteorology, petroleum prospecting, forest fire monitoring, disaster forecasting, telecommunications and public security, among others.�

U.S. military analysts say the satellites are part of China�s military buildup, specifically efforts to develop precision-guided missiles.

The Pentagon said China is close to deploying a long-range land-attack cruise missile similar to the U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile.

Chinese missile developers, including the China Academy of Space Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, part of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, are developing the satellite navigation system.

China launches satellite for own GPS system

Apr 16, 2007

A Chinese rocket placed a navigation satellite in orbit as part of China's effort to build a global positioning system, the official Xinhua News Agency, quoted by an Associated Press report, said.

The Associated Press report said the Long March 3-A rocket blasted off from the Xichang launching center in southwestern China and a short time later the satellite was maneuvered into orbit, 21,500 kilometers above the earth, Xinhua said.

The satellite is the fourth China has launched as part of its Compass navigation system, which will provide navigation and positioning services beginning in China in 2008, Xinhua said.

A decade ago China grew worried about dependence on the US satellite GPS network, the dominant positioning system, and began to develop alternatives, the report said.

Besides the Compass system, China is investing in the European Union's Galileo satellite navigation system and is talking about participating in Russia 's GLONASS system, the report further said.