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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