The director of China’s satellite navigation agency said on Friday that China’s home-based satellite navigation system will bring countless economic, social and military benefits and other countries in Asia are welcome to use it.
The year-old Beidou satellite navigation system is a rival to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russian GLONASS.
Beidou’s 16 satellites serve the Asia-Pacific but the number of satellites is expected to grow to 30 by 2020 as coverage expands globally.
“The construction of the Beidou network should resolve the country’s security issues, including economic security and the security of society-at-large,” he said. “It’s obviously a combined military and civilian infrastructure,” said Ran Chengqi, the director of the Satellite Navigation Office.
“What purpose it will have for national defense or armament, that’s for the armament department or Defense Ministry to consider, but I think that its uses are many,” Ran told a news conference.
The successful deployment of Beidou means the increasingly forceful Chinese armed forces will have an accurate, independent navigation system – vital technology for guiding the missiles, warships and attack aircraft that allow Beijing to claim great power status.