Obama Administration allows Russian Glonass GPS stations to be built across US

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A Russian GPS Using U.S. Soil Stirs Spy Fears


Pedro Ladeira/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A technician from Russia's space agency at a monitor station that opened in Brazil.

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: November 16, 2013

WASHINGTON — In the view of America’s spy services, the next potential threat from Russia may not come from a nefarious cyberweapon or secrets gleaned from the files of Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor now in Moscow.



An engineer with a space navigation satellite for Glonass, Russia’s global positioning network, in Zheleznogorsk in 2011.
Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

An engineer with a space navigation satellite for Glonass, Russia’s global positioning network, in Zheleznogorsk in 2011.

Instead, this menace may come in the form of a seemingly innocuous dome-topped antenna perched atop an electronics-packed building surrounded by a security fence somewhere in the United States.

In recent months, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to build about half a dozen of these structures, known as monitor stations, on United States soil, several American officials said.

They fear that these structures could help Russia spy on the United States and improve the precision of Russian weaponry, the officials said. These monitor stations, the Russians contend, would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of Moscow’s version of the Global Positioning System, the American satellite network that steers guided missiles to their targets and thirsty smartphone users to the nearest Starbucks.

“They don’t want to be reliant on the American system and believe that their systems, like GPS, will spawn other industries and applications,” said a former senior official in the State Department’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology. “They feel as though they are losing a technological edge to us in an important market. Look at everything GPS has done on things like your phone and the movement of planes and ships.”

The Russian effort is part of a larger global race by several countries — including China and European Union nations — to perfect their own global positioning systems and challenge the dominance of the American GPS.

For the State Department, permitting Russia to build the stations would help mend the Obama administration’s relationship with the government of President Vladimir V. Putin, now at a nadir because of Moscow’s granting asylum to Mr. Snowden and its backing of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

But the C.I.A. and other American spy agencies, as well as the Pentagon, suspect that the monitor stations would give the Russians a foothold on American territory that would sharpen the accuracy of Moscow’s satellite-steered weapons. The stations, they believe, could also give the Russians an opening to snoop on the United States within its borders.

The squabble is serious enough that administration officials have delayed a final decision until the Russians provide more information and until the American agencies sort out their differences, State Department and White House officials said.

Russia’s efforts have also stirred concerns on Capitol Hill, where members of the intelligence and armed services committees view Moscow’s global positioning network — known as Glonass, for Global Navigation Satellite System — with deep suspicion and are demanding answers from the administration.

“I would like to understand why the United States would be interested in enabling a GPS competitor, like Russian Glonass, when the world’s reliance on GPS is a clear advantage to the United States on multiple levels,” said Representative Mike D. Rogers, Republican of Alabama, the chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee.

Mr. Rogers last week asked the Pentagon to provide an assessment of the proposal’s impact on national security. The request was made in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Secretary of State John Kerry and the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr.

The monitor stations have been a high priority of Mr. Putin for several years as a means to improve Glonass not only to benefit the Russian military and civilian sectors but also to compete globally with GPS.

Earlier this year, Russia positioned a station in Brazil, and agreements with Spain, Indonesia and Australia are expected soon, according to Russian news reports. The United States has stations around the world, but none in Russia.

Russian and American negotiators last met on April 25 to weigh “general requirements for possible Glonass monitoring stations in U.S. territory and the scope of planned future discussions,” said a State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, who said no final decision had been made.



Russian Federal Space Agency The Brazilian monitor station for Glonass, Russia’s global positioning network, which is operated by its space agency.

Ms. Harf and other administration officials declined to provide additional information. The C.I.A. declined to comment.

The Russian government offered few details about the program. In a statement, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington, Yevgeniy Khorishko, said that the stations were deployed “only to ensure calibration and precision of signals for the Glonass system.” Mr. Khorishko referred all questions to Roscosmos, which did not respond to a request for comment last week.

Although the Cold War is long over, the Russians do not want to rely on the American GPS infrastructure because they remain suspicious of the United States’ military capabilities, security analysts say. That is why they have insisted on pressing ahead with their own system despite the high costs.

Accepting the dominance of GPS, Russians fear, would give the United States some serious strategic advantages militarily. In Russians’ worst fears, analysts said, Americans could potentially manipulate signals and send erroneous information to Russian armed forces.

Monitor stations are essential to maintaining the accuracy of a global positioning system, according to Bradford W. Parkinson, a professor emeritus of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University, who was the original chief architect of GPS. As a satellite’s orbit slowly diverges from its earlier prediction, these small deviations are measured by the reference stations on the ground and sent to a central control station for updating, he said. That prediction is sent to the satellite every 12 hours for subsequent broadcast to users. Having monitor stations all around the earth yields improved accuracy over having them only in one hemisphere.

Washington and Moscow have been discussing for nearly a decade how and when to cooperate on civilian satellite-based navigation signals, particularly to ensure that the systems do not interfere with each other. Indeed, many smartphones and other consumer navigation systems sold in the United States today use data from both countries’ satellites.

In May 2012, Moscow requested that the United States allow the ground-monitoring stations on American soil. American technical and diplomatic officials have met several times to discuss the issue and have asked Russian officials for more information, said Ms. Harf, the State Department spokeswoman.

In the meantime, C.I.A. analysts reviewed the proposal and concluded in a classified report this fall that allowing the Russian monitor stations here would raise counterintelligence and other security issues.

The State Department does not think that is a strong argument, said an administration official. “It doesn’t see them as a threat.”


Meanwhile:
Russia to enforce GLONASS Over GPS




by Staff Writers
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Nov 13, 2013

As of 2014, phones with only U.S. GPS will be illegal in Russia, Moskovskiy Komsomolets writes. In order to be imported into the country, mobile devices will have to support GLONASS - satellite navigation system, developed in Russia.

A new bill claims that in order to guarantee stable operation of a unified telecom network in Russia regardless of conditions it's necessary that the satnav system used by devices on its territory was controlled by the Russian Federation.

The daily also notes that creation of conditions for effective use of GLONASS by all cellphones in Russia is one of priorities of the development of the system. Thus, new requirements for mobile devices with satellite navigation capabilities are soon to follow.

The bill's authors note that after the bill is adopted, its requirements will cover all manufacturers and vendors of cellphones, making it impossible to cell a mobile device without GLONASS support on the territory of the country: the Telecom Ministry and industry watchdog Roskomnadzor will oversee the changes.

Source: Voice of Russia

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Companion Threads:

• Russia Launches Three New Navigation Satellites: Report
• Russia now has satellite PGM
• Glonass Regains Full Operational Capability
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Maybe they'll be testing these too...
Russian Paratroopers Test New Portable Radar

19:24 24/04/2012
MOSCOW, April 24 (RIA Novosti)

Tags: Russian Defense Ministry, Russia

Video

Russian paratroopers have started testing a modernized portable radar that could be installed on airborne combat vehicles or carried by a small crew, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

“The first six radars have been delivered to air defense units which are part of airborne and air-assault brigades stationed in Novorossiisk, Ivanovo and Tula,” Col. Alexander Kucherenko said.

The testing of Garmon portable radars will continue until the end of 2012.

According to various sources, the Garmon (1L122M) radar is designed to detect and track at least three types of airborne targets despite active electronic countermeasures.

The system weighs about 30kg and consists of an antenna array, a CPU, a tactical display and a Glonass receiver.

CIA, Pentagon trying to hinder construction of GLONASS stations in US



Photo: RIA Novosti

The US Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency have been trying to persuade the US State Department not to allow Roscosmos to build several GLONASS ground-based measuring stations in the United States, alleging that they could be used for military purposes.

They fear that the structures could help Russia spy on the United States and improve the precision of Russian weaponry, the officials said. These monitor stations, the Russians contend, would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of Moscow's version of the Global Positioning System, the American satellite network that steers guided missiles to their targets and thirsty smartphone users to the nearest Starbucks.

The Pentagon argues that if the State Department sanctions the GLONASS station deployments, Russia might be able to increase the accuracy of its guided missiles and could also use them for intelligence activity from inside US borders. The arguments have prompted the White House to postpone decision-making on the issue until Russia provides further information, according to anonymous sources in the US Administration and Department of State.

US congressman Michel Rogers, who earlier requested the Pentagon's estimates of the consequences of deploying GLONASS stations for US national security, said he didn't understand why the US should be interested in encouraging GLONASS, a competitor to the American GPS system, when the use of GPS worldwide gives the US obvious advantages in many respects.

Moscow rejects the suggestion that the structures have anything to do with surveillance operations, contending they are designed to improve the accuracy of Russia's version of the Global Positioning System (GPS), the American satellite network that steers guided missiles to their targets and helps with navigation.

"They don't want to be reliant on the American system and believe that their systems, like GPS, will spawn other industries and applications," said a former senior official in the State Department's Office of Space and Advanced Technology.

The monitor stations have been a high priority for Russian President Vladimir Putin for several years as a means of improving Glonass, not just to benefit the Russian military and civilian sectors but also to compete globally with GPS.

Earlier this year, Russia positioned a station in Brazil and agreements with Spain, Indonesia and Australia are expected soon, according to Russian news reports. The United States has stations around the world but none in Russia.

In May 2012, Moscow requested that the United States allow the ground-monitoring stations on American soil. American technical and diplomatic officials have met several times to discuss the issue and have asked Russian officials for more information, said Ms. Harf, the State Department spokeswoman.

In the meantime, CIA analysts reviewed the proposal and concluded in a classified report this fall that allowing the Russian monitor stations here would raise counterintelligence and other security issues.

The State Department does not think that is a strong argument, said an administration official. "It doesn't see them as a threat".

Voice of Russia, RIA, Press TV, NY Times

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_1...ns-in-US-2840/

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I wonder if you map some of the areas they're buying you don't begin to see regional preplanned invasion routes moving toward the center of the country.

Laying down supply lines, resources and communities along your invasion routes before you hostilely enter a nation would be extremely important during a sustained occupation.



Just before the event if the present Administration would also green light them and a few of their friends to help in bring stability forces during transformational change in an economic down turn.

Why would suddenly Russia Want To Train A Thousand Snipers?

This would give them even more opportunity to preposition hardened assets before a multinational surgical strike.

Former under cover FBI agent Larry Grathwohl on Radical Marxist 'Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground's plan to divide and conquer America by allowing Russia and China and their allies to help sstabilize and occupy parts of the US during their tratransformational plans

[Ryan Ruck]

No surprise it's the Commie filled State Department pushing this.

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“Flexibility” With Our Enemies



Now, this is “flexibility” comrade! Moving from the insane to the treasonous… welcome to Glonass, the Russian GPS positioning and monitoring system. And our State Department sees no problem with allowing these systems to be positioned on American soil throughout the country:

In May 2012, Moscow requested that the United States allow the ground-monitoring stations on American soil. American technical and diplomatic officials have met several times to discuss the issue and have asked Russian officials for more information, said Ms. Harf, the State Department spokeswoman.

In the meantime, C.I.A. analysts reviewed the proposal and concluded in a classified report this fall that allowing the Russian monitor stations here would raise counterintelligence and other security issues.

The State Department does not think that is a strong argument, said an administration official. “It doesn’t see them as a threat.”

I’ll bet they don’t see them as a threat. Their comrade Obama is actively ‘helping’ Russia to spy on us and is now painting a target on our major cities. He might as well hand over our launch codes to Putin and who knows… maybe he has. It’s not enough that we face the very real and looming threats from EMPs and cyber attacks, now this:

Instead, this menace may come in the form of a seemingly innocuous dome-topped antenna perched atop an electronics-packed building surrounded by a security fence somewhere in the United States.

In recent months, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to build about half a dozen of these structures, known as monitor stations, on United States soil, several American officials said.

They fear that these structures could help Russia spy on the United States and improve the precision of Russian weaponry, the officials said. These monitor stations, the Russians contend, would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of Moscow’s version of the Global Positioning System, the American satellite network that steers guided missiles to their targets and thirsty smartphone users to the nearest Starbucks.

Are we just stone stupid and suicidal or what? We’ve got Chinese spies working actively within NASA, Islamic extremists roaming our halls of power and now Russians watching and targeting us. It’s a dream come true for our enemies – hell, they don’t have to come in the back door… they’ve been invited in for a group coup with virtually no resistance and not a shot fired. History will look back on this incredulously. I can’t believe what I’m seeing and I’m living it. You don’t have to be a spook to see the existential threat here.

Under the lame guise of claiming that the world should be a level playing field; that the Russians don’t trust the Americans (so, we should of course trust the Ruskies); that Russia and China should have their own GPS systems and the Americans should not hog the market (just like the Internet); we hear the twisted logic that these innocuous dome-topped antenna should be perched atop an electronics-packed building surrounded by a security fence somewhere in the United States and Americans don’t need to be worried. Chill already and have some vodka!

Obama and the State Department claim this will mend fences with Russia, especially after Snowden and Syria. That’s rich, since Snowden was a Soviet plant and a spy.

These systems will sharpen the accuracy of Moscow’s satellite-steered weapons and will be used to spy on us and Obama knows it. Take for instance BrahMos Aerospace Ltd., a Russian-Indian joint venture manufacturing supersonic cruise missiles. They are successfully using Russian-built Glonass receivers for aiming and target acquisitions. Hello… Glonass would be used to guide these puppies right down our throat. Geez Louise people. Obama’s is all but painting the actual crosshairs on our cities. Very few are even questioning all this:

Russia’s efforts have also stirred concerns on Capitol Hill, where members of the intelligence and armed services committees view Moscow’s global positioning network — known as Glonass, for Global Navigation Satellite System — with deep suspicion and are demanding answers from the administration.

“I would like to understand why the United States would be interested in enabling a GPS competitor, like Russian Glonass, when the world’s reliance on GPS is a clear advantage to the United States on multiple levels,” said Representative Mike D. Rogers, Republican of Alabama, the chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee.

Mr. Rogers last week asked the Pentagon to provide an assessment of the proposal’s impact on national security. The request was made in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Secretary of State John Kerry and the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr.

The monitor stations have been a high priority of Mr. Putin for several years as a means to improve Glonass not only to benefit the Russian military and civilian sectors but also to compete globally with GPS.

Yes, the US has GPS stations around the world. We came up with the technology. Last time I looked, we weren’t aggressively manipulating, invading and taking over countries which Russia and China are wont to do. So, tell me again… why are we actively pushing for our enemies who want to kill and conquer us to have these capabilities? Only an enemy from within would push this insanity. Only a fool would think that the Cold War ever ended. It has shifted and now uses technology to advance communism and war. However, it would seem countries are lining up to allow the bastards in. Agreements between Russia and Brazil, Australia, Spain and Indonesia are already in the works.

Right now the CIA and intelligence agencies are standing against this and the State Department. Vilified, gutted and staffed with Obama sycophants… how long do you think that will last? Looks like we all better brush up on our Russian, Mandarin and Farsi. A new red dawn looms. “Flexibility” with our enemies and the fall of America — more crappy reality TV to die for.

Question for our military contributors: Given that ground signal correction for GPS is only needed to refine a location down to a matter of inches, and given that missiles are typically happy to be accurate to a few feet, what application would require ground-corrected GPS accuracy (to, say, three inches) by a foreign government on American soil? I have several theories, but would like input.

[Avvakum]

This situation is so insane that my mind can't even comprehend it.

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U.S. Intelligence Against U.S. Based Russian GLONASS Stations

Spy fears: CIA, Pentagon ‘work against’ Russia building GLONASS station in US

Inauguration of the first monitoring station of Russia’s GLONASS global navigation system outside of Russia, on the University of Brasilia campus in Brasilia (Reuters / Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom) (RT’s archive footage of GLONASS satellite assembly facility in Krasnoyarsk)



US intelligence and military are pressing the State Department not to license construction of monitor stations for Russia’s GLONASS navigation system on US territory, media reveals. The stations reportedly spark fears of spying opportunities.

Moscow sent a request to build monitor stations for GLONASS, a Russian satellite system similar to GPS, on US territory in May 2012.

The White House has been pondering over the proposal ever since. A number of meetings between Russian and American authorities on the GLONASS monitor stations in the US have taken place, but so far US security and military agencies have not agreed about how to react to Moscow’s request.

The CIA and Pentagon suspect that such stations could be used for collecting intelligence data and other military purposes, like collecting exact coordinates of covert facilities in the US for precision missile guidance, a weekend report in The New York Times revealed.

“In recent months, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing Roscosmos… to build about half a dozen of these structures, known as monitor stations, on United States soil,” the report alleges, quoting anonymous US officials.

The concerns are that the stations might help Moscow spy on the US as well as improve the precision of Russian weaponry.


Boris Zyryanov, chief of division of electric and radio tests of navigating satellites, supervises the electric testing of the GLONASS-M space navigation satellite (Reuters / Ilya Naymushin)

Also, American lawmakers don’t like the idea of cooperating with the direct rival of the US national Global Positioning System.

Last week Mike D. Rogers, Republican Representative of Alabama, wrote a mailout to Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper, demanding their assessment of the Russian proposal on the question of national security.

Apart from the US and Russia, China and the EU are also developing satnav systems of their own, Baidu and Galileo respectively.

“They don’t want to be reliant on the American system and believe that their systems, like GPS, will spawn other industries and applications,” a former senior official in the State Department’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology told the newspaper. “They feel as though they are losing a technological edge to us in an important market. Look at everything GPS has done on things like your phone and the movement of planes and ships.”

Still, the White House so far has been opposing accusations of the US intelligence community against Russia as “It doesn’t see them as a threat,” an unidentified administration official said.

The Obama administration is currently trying to mend Russian-American relations, damaged over Syria and asylum to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed document-supported evidence of the US spying on unprecedented levels over global networks, including after their closest allies.

In October 2012 Vitaly Davydov, the former deputy of Russia’s Roskosmos space agency, revealed that Moscow needs to deploy eight monitor stations in the US for correct operation of the system in North America. He also disclosed that 19 monitor stations of American GPS positioning system were operable in Russia as of 2012.

On the contrary, in the latest report on the GLONASS in the US, the NYT claims that there are no GPS monitor stations in Russia whatsoever.

What is GLONASS

The development of the GLONASS global navigation system began in the Soviet Union, which put the very first satellite of the system into orbit on October 12, 1982. The system was officially commissioned on September 24, 1993.

Despite a number of faulty rocket launches with GLONASS satellites in recent years, today the GLONASS orbit group consists of 27 satellites, of which 24 ensure global navigation and the remaining three are either in reserve or perform experimental equipment tests.

Russia has been deploying augmentation system stations abroad for some time already. So far there are 14 monitor stations in Russia, one in Brazil and one on Antarctica’s continent at Russia’s Bellingshausen station.

More GLONASS stations are expected to be built in the nearest future: eight in Russia, two in Brazil, one in Australia, Cuba, Indonesia, Spain, Vietnam and an additional station in the Antarctic.

It was confirmed earlier in November that starting from 2014 all mobile phones and portable handheld devices with navigation functions, either imported or produced in Russia, must be equipped with GLONASS, or GLONASS and GPS microchips.


At the command post for GLONASS management in the Titov Main Space Testing Center (RIA Novosti / Sergey Pyatakov)

Today GLONASS is supported on products from world-leading handheld device producers, such as Samsung, Nokia, Apple, Motorola and others, simultaneously with GPS. This has become possible largely because leading producers of microchips, such as Qualcomm, have started producing GLONASS-enabled chipsets.

The introduction of a new positioning system has been welcomed by customers worldwide, because using both GLONASS and GPS systems increases the precision of positioning. European EGNOS project unites signals from both systems and gives precision positioning down to between 1.5 and 3 meters in Europe.

Within the next decade GLONASS is expected to replace existing satellites with new generation platforms that would enable 0.1 meter precision positioning anywhere in the world, except the polar regions of the planet.

Should Russia be Allowed to Install GLONASS Monitor Stations on U.S. Soil?

Marcia S. Smith
Posted: 17-Nov-2013
Updated: 17-Nov-2013 02:42 PM

The New York Times (NYT) carries an interesting story today about an ongoing debate within U.S. policy circles about whether to allow Russia to install monitor stations for its GLONASS navigation satellite system on U.S. soil to improve its accuracy. The debate pits the State Department, which reportedly wants to say yes, against the U.S. defense and intelligence communities, which object to the idea. A government advisory board on U.S. and foreign navigation satellite systems was briefed on this topic in May and no questions appear to have been raised.

GLONASS is the Russian equivalent to the U.S. GPS system. The use of GPS is pervasive not only in the United States, but around the world and other countries are building their own systems. GPS and GLONASS are formally called positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) satellites. When fully operational, each system consists of a constellation of 24 satellites that provide three-dimensional (latitude, longitude, altitude) data anywhere on Earth as well as very precise timing signals. The term Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is used to refer to these systems generically. In addition to the U.S. GPS and Russia's GLONASS, two other GNSS systems are under development -- China's Beidou and Europe's Galileo. Japan and India are developing regional systems (QZSS and IRNSS, respectively).

The gist of the debate reported by the NYT is that the accuracy of GNSS systems depends on reference stations around the globe that detect even slight changes in each satellite's orbit so data can be corrected and measurements kept extremely accurate. Russia wants to emplace some of these reference, or monitor, stations on U.S. territory. The NYT story says the State Department wants to permit Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, to build monitor stations here to "help mend the Obama administration's relationship with the government of President Vladimir V. Putin, now at a nadir" after Russia gave asylum to Edward Snowden. The story continues that the CIA and the Defense Department "are waging a campaign" to stop it for fear it will give Russia "a foothold on American territory that would sharpen the accuracy of Moscow's satellite-steered weapons" and "give the Russians an opening to snoop on the United States within its borders." It quotes the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), as wondering "why the United States would be interested in enabling a GPS competitor, like Russian Glonass [sic], when the world's reliance on GPS is a clear advantage to the United States on multiple levels."

The NYT says Russian and American negotiators last met on April 25.

A SpacePolicyOnline.com review of the minutes of the most recent (May 7-8, 2013) meeting of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board, which provides independent advice to the government about GPS/GNSS issues, found many discussions of GLONASS in a variety of contexts. Among them was a briefing by Dave Turner, Deputy Director of the State Department's Office of Space and Advanced Technology. One of his slides clearly states that U.S. objectives in working with other countries' systems is to "ensure compatibility," "achieve interoperability," and "promote fair competition in the global marketplace." Those objectives will be pursued through "bilateral and multilateral cooperation."

According to the minutes, he told the Board that discussions with Russia on those topics "began in 1996 and currently involve the potential of hosting of GLONASS ground monitoring and laser tracking stations on U.S. territory." The minutes, which appear to be quite detailed, indicate no questions from or comments by Board members on that point.

The Board is chaired by James Schlesinger, who has held many high-level government jobs including Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA and is now chairman of the MITRE Corporation. The Board's Vice Chair is Stanford's Brad Parkinson, who is considered the "father" of GPS. Its next meeting is scheduled for December 4-5, 2013 in Washington, DC.

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Lawmaker Flags Proposal for U.S.-based Glonass Stations

By Mike Gruss | Nov. 18, 2013


Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.): “I would also like to understand why the United States would be interested in enabling a GPS competitor, like Russia’s GLONASS."

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the U.S. House panel that oversees military space efforts is raising red flags over a Russian request to place ground stations for its satellite navigation system in the United States.

Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, said in a Nov. 13 letter to senior Obama administration officials that he was “troubled by the national security implications of the request and wish to better understand the status of its consideration by the United States.” The letter was sent to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

One of the concerns Rogers raised was the potential for the ground stations, which would help improve the accuracy of the Russian Glonass satellite navigation system, to interfere with signals from the U.S. GPS system. He noted that just a few years back, concerns over GPS signal interference derailed LightSquared’s plans for a U.S. terrestrial wireless broadband network using adjacent frequencies.

“I would therefore be concerned by any proposal that could wind up with foreign sources of interference to that system or other important systems,” the letter said. “I would also like to understand why the United States would be interested in enabling a GPS competitor, like Russia’s GLONASS, when the world’s reliance on GPS is a clear advantage to the United States on multiple levels. Reported enthusiasm at the State Department with the Russian GLONASS proposal is likewise difficult to understand.”

Rogers said it is his understanding that the U.S. intelligence community recently completed an assessment of the proposal and requested a briefing on its findings. He also asked the State Department to provide details of the Russian proposal and for an assessment of its national security implications from the Defense Department.

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Russia Wants to Build GPS Stations in US

Monday, 18 Nov 2013 06:41 AM

By Elliot Jager

Russia wants to build a network of GPS ground stations in the United States to improve the accuracy of its own Glonass global positioning system, The New York Times reported.

The idea is championed by the State Department, which is seeking ways of improving relations with Moscow, but it's opposed by the national-security establishment on the grounds that an enhanced Russian GPS capability could be used to better guide satellite weapons targeting the U.S. and because the facilities could be used as listening posts to spy on internal American communications.

The Russian request has also run into opposition on Capitol Hill.

In addition to improving accuracy, a presence in the U.S. would help Glonass compete globally with GPS, and benefit the Russian military which fears US dominance in GPS capabilities, according to the Times.

The United States has no ground stations in Russia.

The Russians, like the European Union and China, do not want to be dependent on American global positioning systems technology.

The Russian stations would be packed with electronics and rooftop aerials surrounded by security fences.

The prospect of Russian GPS facilities on U.S. soil leaves Representative Mike Rogers uneasy.

"I would like to understand why the United States would be interested in enabling a GPS competitor, like Russian Glonass, when the world's reliance on GPS is a clear advantage to the United States on multiple levels," said the Alabama Republican, chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee.

The State Department does not view Russian ground stations as posing a threat to U.S. security, according to the Times.

Bradford Parkinson, professor emeritus at Stanford, the chief architect of GPS, said that satellite orbits diverge from projected paths and their deviations are recalibrated by ground stations.

The more ground stations scattered around the globe the better a GPS system's accuracy.

[vector7]

Department of Peace for Our Time

November 16th, 2013 - 11:27 pm


Neville again.

American healthcare aside (“If you like your plan…”), there are some promises that President Obama has kept. Notably, his promise last year to Russia’s Vladimir Putin — accidentally overheard by the entire world, via an open microphone — that once he’d won the 2012 presidential election, he’d have more “flexibility.” He was true to his word. With this September’s Russia-brokered deal over Syria’s chemical weapons, the Obama administration showed flexibility enough to compete with Cirque du Soleil.

Now, just when it seemed that U.S. policy toward Russia could hardly become more flexible without requiring all Americans to dine daily on borscht (or does the Affordable Care Act already include a provision for that?), here comes a story in the New York Times, headlined“A Russian GPS Using U.S. Soil Stirs Spy Fears.” The gist is that the State Department is gung-ho to allow the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos (which coordinates with Russian military launches), to install on U.S. turf some half a dozen electronic monitor stations for a Russian Global Positioning System. The Times reports that not everyone in the administration thinks this is a great idea. The Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency see this plan as a threat to U.S. security: “They fear that these structures could help Russia spy on the United States and improve the precision of Russian weaponry.”

But does that worry the State Department? Not according to the Times, which goes on to provide the following account of the State Department’s rationale:

For the State Department, permitting Russia to build the stations would help mend the Obama administration’s relationship with the government of President Vladimir V. Putin, now at a nadir because of Moscow’s granting asylum to Mr. Snowden and its backing of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

Come again? I have read that paragraph over, at least half a dozen times, and it still doesn’t make sense. If the Obama administration’s ties to Putin’s regime are at a low, the reason is not that the U.S. has snubbed or damaged Russia, but that Russia’s Putin has mocked and undermined the U.S. First came Russia’s dalliance with American fugitive Edward Snowden. Then came the aborted showdown over Syria, in which Russia, one of Assad’s chief weapons suppliers, walked away with the jackpot, sending warships into the Mediterranean and wielding diplomacy to translate Assad’s use of chemical weapons into a ticket for the Russian-backed survival of his regime and alarming expansion at U.S. expense of Russian influence in the Middle East. Surely, if the U.S.-Russia relationship is to be improved, it is Russia that owes the U.S. some conciliatory moves. Not the other way round.

And yet, there it is — a report that the State Department hopes to woo Russia by answering the Kremlin’s insults and power-and-influence grabs with an invitation to come on in and set up GPS monitor stations for Roscosmos on U.S. soil; never mind the worries of the CIA and Defense Department. I’m not questioning the reporting in this article; in context there is every reason to believe that the reporters are accurately providing information about State Department policy. It’s the policy itself that makes no sense, at least not if the aim here is to protect U.S. interests and national security.


But there’s a lot going on right now that in terms of actually protecting the U.S. makes zero sense. The endless, amnesiac and oh so flexible “reset” with Russia is consistent with the State Department’s zeal, and for that matter, the president’s, to ensure that no new sanctions are imposed on Iran, lest any flexing of U.S. muscle might wreck the chances for a nuclear deal at the talks now scheduled to resume Nov. 20 in Geneva. Call it pre-existing appeasement.

Nor are these independent matters. In Tehran, in Beijing, in Pyongyang and beyond, policy and military elites are reading that article in the New York Times, and drawing their own conclusions about just how thoroughly the U.S. administration will prostrate itself to appease despotic regimes that deride, oppose and threaten America and its allies. This is a policy far removed from the ways of the real world, in which, 26 years ago, to spectacular effect in the cause of peace, President Reagan went to West Berlin and commanded Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev: “Tear down this wall.” Instead, buying deals for our diplomats today at the cost of proliferating threats tomorrow, we are tripping step by step down the trail of “Peace for our time.”



Is The State Department Nuts? Why Would It Allow Russians To Build Facilities In US?

WOULD YOU BELIEVE THE U.S. STATE DEPT IS REPORTEDLY PREPARED TO LET RUSSIA BUILD THESE ON AMERICAN SOIL?

Nov. 16, 2013 8:44pm Dave Urbanski

The CIA and Pentagon have been trying to halt a State Department plan to let Russia’s space agency (Roscosmos) construct within the United States a handful of monitor stations, according to American officials, the New York Times reported.

The fear is that the stations could aid Russian efforts to spy on the U.S. and bolster the accuracy of Russian weaponry, the officials told the Times, adding that the Russians said the monitor stations would dramatically improve their version of the Global Positioning System.


A look inside Roscosmos (Image source: YouTube raw video)

The CIA and other U.S. spy agencies, along with the Pentagon, believe the monitor stations would provide Russia with better accuracy with weapons and an opening to spy on the U.S., the Times noted.

In addition members of Congressional intelligence and armed services committees regard Moscow’s GPS — a.k.a. Glonass (i.e., Global Navigation Satellite System) — with suspicion and want answers from the Obama administration.

“I would like to understand why the United States would be interested in enabling a GPS competitor, like Russian Glonass, when the world’s reliance on GPS is a clear advantage to the United States on multiple levels,” said Representative Mike D. Rogers, Republican of Alabama, the chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee.

The Times characterizes the State Department’s willingness to let Russia build about a half dozen stations as a way to help repair President Obama’s relationship with Vladimir V. Putin, which took a nosedive after Moscow granted asylum to Edward Snowden and supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Russian push in this direction is part of a larger global race by China and European Union nations, among others, the Times reported, to perfect their own GPS technology and challenge the dominance of the American GPS.

A former senior official in the State Department’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology told the Times that the Russians “don’t want to be reliant on the American system and believe that their systems, like GPS, will spawn other industries and applications. They feel as though they are losing a technological edge to us in an important market. Look at everything GPS has done on things like your phone and the movement of planes and ships.”

Administration officials have held off a final decision until the Russians give more information and U.S. agencies resolve differences, State Department and White House officials told the Times.

You can read the entire New York Times article here.

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Obama Considers Russian Request to Install Satellite Monitoring Stations

A full-sized model of the Russian Next-Generation Glosnass-K Satellite was displayed at CeBit 2011. // Flickr user PaGn

By Bob Brewin December 10, 2013 2 Comments

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The Obama administration continues to review Russian proposals to install up to six monitoring stations on U.S. territory for its satellite navigation system, despite strong opposition in Congress.

In May 2012, Russia made a formal request to install base stations in the United States to monitor its Global Navigation Satellite System, or GLONASS. Kenneth D. Hodgkins, director of the State Department’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology, told a space navigation and timing advisory board meeting last Thursday that “U.S. officials have requested more information through discussions led by State in coordination with executive branch departments and agencies.”

Hodgkins added, “Based on the ongoing discussions, the original Russian proposal has evolved and is currently under review within the U.S. government.” He did not provide additional details on changes in the Russian proposal. The Federal Aviation Administration and NASA “initially expressed interest in acting as hosts” for the Russian monitor stations.

On Nov. 16, The New York Times reported that the CIA and the Pentagon “have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department” from approving installation of the GLONASS monitoring stations on U.S. soil.

The Pentagon and CIA fear the monitor stations would help Russia spy on the U.S. and improve the accuracy of GLONASS, a system designed to rival the U.S. GPS satellite navigation system.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., on Nov. 19 introduced an amendment to the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act that prohibits the construction of foreign ground stations in the U.S. unless the Defense secretary and the director of national intelligence certify that the construction of the stations would not be used to gather intelligence or improve the accuracy of any foreign weapons systems.

“I am deeply concerned about the Russian proposal to use U.S. soil to strengthen its GPS capabilities,” Wicker said. “These ground monitor stations could be used to gather intelligence. Even more troubling, these stations could actually improve the accuracy of foreign missiles targeted at the United States,” he added.

Wicker, in remarks on the Senate floor, said he viewed the administration’s embrace of the GLONASS monitor stations as a way to improve its “failed” relations with Russia. “We have every reason to be skeptical of Russia's intentions to utilize GPS monitoring stations on U.S. soil. Let me repeat this: GPS monitoring stations controlled by Russia on U.S. soil,” Wicker said.

Representative Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., told the Times he had sent letters to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Secretary of State John Kerry and the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., asking for an assessment of the impact on national security of the GLONASS monitoring stations. “I would like to understand why the United States would be interested in enabling a GPS competitor, like Russian GLONASS, when the world’s reliance on GPS is a clear advantage to the United States on multiple levels,” Rogers told the Times.

Monitoring stations, which include GPS receivers and an electronics package, are essential to operation of satellite navigation system, feeding information back to central control stations to help calculate precise orbits. The U.S. operates 16 GPS monitor stations wordwide, including sites in the lower 48 states, U.S. territories such as Guam, and in foreign countries such as Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Ecuador, South Africa, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

Russia plans to install 40 GLONASS monitor stations within its own borders, as well as ten abroad. It installed its first overseas station in Brazil in February.

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GPS/GLONASS Dispute: CEO Clarifies Misunderstandings

May 23, 2014 - By Alan Cameron 1 Comments


Javad Ashjaee

“Use any opportunity to create friendship and peace,” urged Javad Ashjaee, president and CEO of JAVAD GNSS, in a May 23 conversation with journalists. He decried the recent controversy about monitoring stations on both U.S. and Russian soil, saying it was based in misinformation and misinterpretations, inflated by a political crisis in a completely different area. “This [GNSS] is a good thing, that for 25 years kept us together. And if you see, there are lots of high-level meetings between U.S. and Russian officials, they are all very friendly meetings.”

A transcription of his remarks appears here, below the following main points and clarifications that he wished to make:

• Earlier this year, Russia sought GLONASS monitoring stations in the United States, not for uploading any data, but for monitoring GLONASS satellites to provide more accurate orbit and clock information, for the free and open benefit of all users.

• The Russian general who threatened to close down monitoring stations on Russian soil that contribute data to the International GNSS Service was immediately and roundly criticized by Russian scientists and surveyors. The general subsequently retracted his remarks.

• The 11-hour GLONASS outage on April 1 was not due to a wait for all satellites to pass over ground control stations on Russian soil to receive a fresh upload of data. GLONASS has the capability (as does GPS) to make such updates via inter-satellite communication. The delay was caused by the time it took to find the bug in the erroneous software that had been uploaded, and to correct it.

• Ashjaee also noted that “No military activity requires millimeter accuracy. It is only scientific applications for humanitarian tasks that require millimeter accuracy. Needing more monitoring stations, such as the IGS stations, is only for that purpose.”

The Background
Javad Ashjaee, founder and CEO of JAVAD GNSS, contacted GPS World on May 20 with a message: “I had a discussion today with the head of the GLONASS program in RosKosmos regarding the tracking sites that they wanted to establish in the United States, and the subsequent events. What has been published in most U.S. media is far from the truth. It is time that we contribute to defusing problems rather than putting more fuel on the fire. The world has enough problems already.”

The Full Statement
This is the story of GPS/GLONASS. It also gives some insight as to how things get out of control, and much, much bigger issues like war and things like Ukraine get created. It is just a tiny, simple example.

When I first heard the issue of GLONASS about 25 years ago and was invited by RosKosmos to Moscow, I didn’t think of Communism or anything political, I thought “30 satellites free, that they’re willing to give to the world, free of charge.” That’s how I got excited. Recently, GPS World published a wonderful history of the growing development of GLONASS and GPS.

What bothers me now is some negative reactions that I see towards GLONASS. It seems that when they see something negative about GLONASS, they enjoy it. In the reports, read between the lines. When there is a problem with GLONASS, you sense some sort of happiness. There is something of “them versus us.”

There was the question, “Why do they need things in our country? Don’t they have them in their country?”
When people don’t know each other, they fear and they create fear.

One thing we should look at: GLONASS is good for all of us. As President Reagan offered GPS free of charge to the world, and everybody applauded him — the Russians have done the same thing. In Oklahoma, California, everywhere, farmers and surveyors are using GLONASS free of charge, the same as GPS. And GLONASS has been better, and I emphasize, it has been better because they didn’t encrypt their code so that we had to go behind and decipher and decrypt and all the trouble that we went to during the past 20 years, because GPS didn’t think that we need carrier phase.

GLONASS is good for America, for the world, as is GPS. If there is a problem with GLONASS, we must be unhappy, as we are unhappy when there is a problem with GPS. And if we can help GLONASS, we must help GLONASS. There is nothing to fear about war, nobody needs [millimeter-level] accuracy of GPS or GLONASS if there is a war between super-powers.

We should all want GLONASS to give precise information. We care about centimeter-level accuracy, the military doesn’t. Five-meter accuracy is good enough for them. To improve the precise-orbit information of GLONASS is the concern of surveyors and those that need precision GPS.

Now, what’s the issue? GLONASS needs 50 reference stations all around the world to monitor the orbits of its satellites, to make the precise-orbit information [furnished to users] better. Not to upload information to the satellites. For this, one station is enough, for both GPS and GLONASS, because both have inter-satellite connections that can do this.

There was speculation in early April that it took GLONASS 11 hours to correct a software bug because it took that long for all the satellites to pass over a control station on Russian soil. This was not the case, I have learned from conversations with their engineers and with the head person responsible for all of this. One engineer made a mistake and uploaded the wrong software. Until they could find it and debug it — and it took them 11 hours to do so — they could not upload correct software to the satellites.

What they are asking for from the United States is not an upload station. They need as many [globally-distributed] monitoring stations as possible; 50 is good.

The International GNSS Service (IGS) has 300. To have a good orbit determination for scientific work, to get to the depth of centimeter- or millimeter-level accuracy, the objectives of IGS reports is to have 200 or 300 monitoring stations. For military work, three or four is enough.

Russia already has more than 50 monitoring stations. They use IGS stations. They didn’t need to ask for anything. Even [data from] the units we have in our San Jose office is available to everybody.

So I asked the GLONASS people, “Why did you ask? You have [access to more than] 200 monitoring stations!”

This was the issue: it was only political. When RosKosmos made internal presentations in Russia to their [government and military] decision-makers, they were asked, “OK, these stations are controlled by who?” By the IGS, they answered. They were told “You must have stations under Russian control.”

I explained to them that IGS stations, for them, are more convenient and more secure. If President Obama told the IGS, told Stanford University and 200 other universities, to turn off their IGS stations, there would be a lot of disagreement! President Obama could turn off Russian stations on U.S. soil. I told them, IGS stations are more convenient and more secure for you than your own stations, and they understood. They are not pushing for it, they said those officials on the top, they know nothing. They were asking that we must have five stations under our control.

If you understand this: that the issue was [Russian internal] political, that they don’t need anything. They already get the precise orbit data from IGS stations.

Now, the second part or episode of this problem: when a Russian general heard that the United States said “No” to the request for Russian-controlled monitoring stations on U.S. soil, he said “Oh, now they don’t let us do this? We will turn off their stations in Russia.” All surveyors and all scientists in Russia jumped at that general, and he retracted what he had said.

But people who didn’t understand this [that IGS-participating stations in Russia have nothing to do with controlling GPS satellites or supplying GPS data to users], they put their own statements in the press, they added fuel to the fire.

The Q&A
When asked how surveyors in Oklahoma could help GLONASS, as he had urged, Ashjaee replied “They can write to their senators and ask, why didn’t you let monitoring stations be in the heart of Oklahoma too?”

Afterthought
Once the first version of this online story was posted, Javad Ashjaee sent in this further comment:
“Part of my admiration for the GLONASS team is that they managed to pull this project off amidst their worst economical, social, and political times.

Compare their situation with GPS that had a huge budget (and still ran way over budget) and with Galileo that took several rich countries to put the budgets and technology together. GLONASS also offered this free and unrestricted service to the world without making any political gestures. No encryption of codes and no selective availability either.

“There is an abundance of opportunities to create hostility, and there are enough people to promote it. Situations like this are rare that we can grasp the opportunity to promote friendship.”

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City of Madison, WI Engineering base station has both GPS and Glonass

08/07/2014 by seilermapsupport

City of Madison, WI Engineering base station has both GPS and Glonass

If you collect GPS and Glonass data near Madison, WI you now have a base station that can differentially correct against both satellite constellation’s.

• If your GPS unit is Glonass enabled or Floodlight enabled then you can take advantage of base station that records both GPS and Glonass satellites.

• Update your Trimble Base list within your software weekly: GPS Pathfinder Office, GPS Analyst and or Trimble Positions.

• More base stations across the USA are becoming a “GNSS” base station – GPS and Glonass – multi satellite constellation receiver.

Trimble MGIS devices that support Glonass/Floodlight:

• ProXRT with Glonass Edition
• Pro6T/H with Floodlight
• Geo 6000 XT/XH with Floodlight
• Geo 7XT/XH with Floodlight

This is a screen shot from Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office.

Position Properties within Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office showing that both GPS and Glonass are in the “Corrected TerraSync” file.

50 miles or less is recommended for Sub Foot horizontal accuracy for Post Processing/Differential Correction. Image compliments of Google Earth.

Russia keen on putting GLONASS stations in Alaska

Russia has offered the United States its GLONASS station for differential correction and monitoring to be placed on the Alaskan coast opposite Russia’s Chukotka peninsula, according to Russian Space Systems’ General Director Gennady Raikunov.

The Russian system for differential correction and monitoring (SDKM) for mapping vertical and ionospheric delays and information on the integrity of navigation signals from global satellite navigation systems in Russia necessitates SDKM data-collecting stations to be placed abroad, including, as an option, a station in the U.S., in the city of Teller in Alaska,” Raikunov said, commenting on the desirable location for the Russian ground system GLONASS.

Earlier the U.S. refused to host Russia’s GLONASS, citing national security concerns. http://rbth.com/news/

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Obama quietly turns over 911 US Emergency Systems to Russia

Risks of sabotage, espionage too high for some lawmakers



By Maggie Ybarra - The Washington Times - Wednesday, January 21, 2015

The Federal Communications Commission is considering a plan to route U.S. emergency 911 location calls through a Russian satellite system, raising national security alarms inside a Congress dubious of Moscow’s intentions.

In a proposal before the FCC, the 911 emergency system would rely on the Russian Federation’s GLONASS precision navigation and timing satellite system to locate people calling 911 from their mobile phones.

If the plan is enacted, Russia may have the ability to impair America’s 911 emergency capabilities and could use it as a tool to spy on the whereabouts of first responders among other things, legislators warn.

“In view of the threat posed to the world by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, it cannot be seriously considered that the U.S. would rely on a system in that dictator’s control for its wireless 911 location capability,” Rep. Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican and chairman of the Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces, wrote in a letter to the secretary of defense and director of national intelligence.

“Our response to Russia’s hybrid warfare, arms control cheating, illegal invasions of sovereign nations, and energy-based extortion must be broad-based isolation and counter-leverage,” Mr. Rogers said in the letter, which was obtained exclusively by The Washington Times.

Wireless carriers AT&T Mobility, Sprint, T-Mobile USA and Verizon crafted the plan along with the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials and the National Emergency Number Association in hopes of improving the ability of police, firefighters and medics to locate people who use their mobile phones to call for help.

Use of multiple systems improves the ability to pinpoint a signal’s source exactly, said Trey Forgety, director of government affairs for the National Emergency Number Association, going on to note that the Russian satellite system is superior to the European and Chinese alternatives for various reasons.

“If you have good use of the sky and both satellites, you have better accuracy,” he said. “Our view is that we ought to be leveraging anything that is available to find someone in an emergency.”

Cellphone users who dial 911 from inside a building in urban areas are more difficult for first responders to find because the GPS technology on cellphones does not work as well indoors as it does outdoors, according to published reports.

In defense of the industry’s plans, Sprint said it would keep the use of the Russian satellites to a minimum, thus reducing the national security threat.

“The roadmap does not envision that carriers will rely exclusively on the GLONASS system,” Ray Rothermel, Sprint’s director of government affairs, said in a Dec. 24 letter to FCC officials. “Rather, the roadmap advocates taking advantage of a tool that is available now to allow carriers to improve location information.”

Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to discuss concerns raised in the congressional letter but said the Defense Department would be sure to address them.

“Secretary Hagel places a high priority on working closely with Congress and will answer as quickly as possible,” he said. “As a matter of policy, we do not release the secretary’s congressional correspondence.”

Nikolay Liashenko, a counselor for the Russian Embassy in Washington, had no comment Wednesday evening.

Mr. Rogers asked the Department of Defense and DNI to detail the extent to which they would rely on the 911 system for communications and the effect on national security users and first responders if Russia provides the satellite communications.

[Ryan Ruck]

As much as I don't like the Glonass stations in the US (since we shouldn't be helping Russia strengthen the accuracy of their precision weapons, especially in the US), the use of Glonass by cell phone users to help 911 systems pinpoint users is a bit of a non-issue. I don't know if the article's author or Rep. Rodgers understand how Glonass works and that 911 calls won't actually be routed through the satellites.

There are many satellite based navigation systems, including some cell phones already, that use a combination of US GPS, Europe's Galileo, and Russia's Glonass systems. Most of these are systems that require a very high degree of precision like farm equipment auto-navigation and earth moving grading systems. They compare system signals to determine a much higher degree of location accuracy than just using one system alone. If one system were deliberately putting out false, inaccurate signals (as Russia could do with Glonass), the multi-system receiver's algorithms would likely compare it to the other received signals and if it were wildly off filter it out to not overly negatively affect the location accuracy. Though I don't know the inner workings of such receivers, such a filtering mechanism is pretty basic and common sense.

As we've posted before the Chinese are building their BeiDou satellite system and I've seen it mentioned that such multi-system receivers are planning to incorporate that as well for another level of redundancy.