RUSSIA TURNS TO CUBA TO GAIN NORTH AMERICAN TOEHOLD FOR GLONASS

RUSSIA TURNS TO CUBA TO GAIN NORTH AMERICAN TOEHOLD FOR GLONASS
By Matthew Bodner
The St. Petersburg Times
Published: June 19, 2014 (Issue # 1816)

Russia plans to establish Glonass facilities in 36 countries around the
world, increasing the accuracy of Glonass's positioning information.

While the U.S. and Russia continue to bicker over the deployment of
Glonass navigation stations on American soil and the status of GPS
stations in Russia, Moscow has found a way to get its foot in the door
to North America by installing Glonass infrastructure in Cuba.

A statement on the Russian government's website on Wednesday said Russia
had signed a new space cooperation agreement with Cuba — a country that
has no presence in space at all. The only substance to the agreement,
which the statement said is "intended to create a legal and
organizational basis for mutually beneficial Russian-Cuban cooperation
in the field," is Cuba's assenting to host Glonass differential
correction and monitoring stations.

If Russia is ever to bring Glonass up to snuff with the U.S.-owned and
operated Global Positioning System, or GPS, which Moscow needs to do to
effectively utilize Glonass for military and economic purposes, it must
have a truly global network of tracking stations. In this regard, Cuba
is a beachhead for Russia's satellite technology in North America.

Russia had wanted to base stations in the U.S., but U.S. authorities
have been dragging their feet on the issue of hosting Glonass stations
for almost a year due to national security concerns — much to the
consternation of Russian officials such as Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Rogozin, who last month decided to hold for ransom a network of
scientific GPS stations used to monitor continental drift on the
Eurasian landmass. Rogozin threatened to shut GPS off from the stations
if Washington does not hammer out a deal on the placement of Glonass
stations in the U.S. by Sept. 1.

Russia plans to establish Glonass facilities in 36 countries around the
world, enabling different stations to compare location data in order to
dramatically increase the accuracy of Glonass's positioning information
— a technique known as differential correction. Russia hopes that this
worldwide network will allow it to achieve a level of parity with GPS in
terms of reliability and accuracy for the end-user.

Already Glonass stations have been set up in Brazil and Antarctica, but
Russia hopes to establish an additional 50 stations, including in the
U.S., to support these ambitions.

Source: Russia Turns to Cuba to Gain North American Toehold for Glonass
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