Ukraine to cooperate with Russia on global military satellite net

Kiev - Ukraine's aerospace industry will cooperate with Russia on the expansion and operation of a global military navigation satellite network, officials in Kiev said Wednesday.

The Kremlin and Kiev are close to an agreement that would make Ukraine's state-run National Space Agency (NSAU) a major participant in the Moscow-run GLONASS global positioning system, said Yury Alekseev, NSAU head, at a Kiev press conference.

GLONASS is a Russia-developed navigation satellite network similar to the US' already-operating GPS network, and China's Compass navigation system.

The currently is used primarily by Russia's military for missile targeting and combat unit navigation. Ukraine's government would gain full access to GLONASS once a joint operation agreement is signed later this year, Alekseev said.

"There is a shared interest here for both Russian, and Ukrainian specialists," Alekseev said, according to an Interfax report.

Ukrainian ground control stations would participate in GLONASS satellite communications and monitoring, he said.

Ukraine's aerospace industry is well-developed, with state-run factories in Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv producing satellite components and rocket boosters regularly used by the international telecoms industry.

Russia's government in 2001 embarked on a program aimed at making the GLONASS network fully operational, and expanding its global coverage, at the time planning substantial use of Ukrainian launch vehicles.

An anti-Russia government coming to power in Ukraine in 2004 brought a halt to Kiev's participation in the Kremlin-run GLONASS.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russia politician inaugurated in office in February, has named a renewal of tight collaboration between Ukraine's and Russian's aerospace industries as a top priority for his government.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/316617,ukraine-to-cooperate-with-russia-on-global-military-satellite-net.html.