China Launches Its Answer to America’s GPS Dominance

Officials at China’s independent satellite navigation system announced Tuesday their GPS alternative is available to the public, reports the BBC.

Named Beidou, Chinese for “compass,” the system has been in development for more than a decade. China began work on Beidou in 2000 in order to become less dependent on the U.S.-owned Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) infrastructure.

Before launching Beidou, the Chinese relied on American GPS for military and domestic use. Should China have gotten involved in a military conflict with a U.S. ally, the United States could have blocked access to GPS, causing a disadvantage for the Chinese military. With Beidou, China now has its own system for warship navigation and missile targeting.

China state media have stressed the commercial potential of the new system. Domestic GPS technology is a thriving market in the United States and Europe, and China expects to replicate that success.

Civilian users of the network will have geolocation accuracy of 10 meters and speed measurements accurate to .2 meters per second. The Chinese military will have access to more accurate data.

The development of Baidou parallels the creation of GPS, which was available exclusively to the American military for the first 20 years of its existence. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton declared GPS to be a “dual-use system” in 1996. This paved the way for car and naval navigation, geolocation, geocaching and a plethora of other GPS applications. However, in the U.S. and elsewhere, the military still enjoys more accurate GPS data than civilians.

Currently, Beidou uses 10 satellites. Coverage is limited to mainland China and nearby areas of Asia. The Chinese government plans to expand the system gradually, providing global coverage by 2020.