The lack of a navigational system for Russian forces in the recent conflict in South Ossetia and Abkhazia may have spurred the additional funding for GLONASS.
Photo: Andrey Korshunov
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GLONASS Gets a Shot of Military Funding
The Russian government has allocated an additional 67 billion rubles to the GLONASS global navigation system program. Experts say the number of satellites in the system will be doubled in the next three years and the system will turn into a competitor to the U.S. GPS system. The lack of a navigational system for Russian forces in the recent conflict in South Ossetia and Abkhazia may be spurred this unexpected generosity. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed the resolution on additional funding on Friday.
Six more satellites for the system are to be launched this year, bringing the total to 22. About 10 billion rubles of the new funds will go to the federal cartographic agency to create electronic digital maps of cities and roads, said Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov. Another portion of the funds will go to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to create the land apparatus for the system.
The GLONASS system was launched in 1993. Under the initial plan for it, the system was to work on the territory of Russia using 18 satellites by the end of 2007 and to operate throughout the world with 24 satellites by 2010. The system was not launched on schedule, however. There are 16 GLONASS satellites in orbit today. The new start date for the system is December 31, 2008. The program was allotted 4.73 billion rubles in 2006, 9.88 billion rubles in 2007 and 10.28 billion rubles this year.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 15, 2008
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