OREANDA-NEWS. December 29, 2008. The number of foreign users of the Russian GLONASS global navigation system will increase, according to Anatoly Shilov, Chief of Roscosmos Navigation, Communication and Ground Control Systems Directorate.

"We are planning to sign GLONASS agreements with other countries. This interest is understandable. Our partners wish to have both US GPS and Russian GLONASS available", Shilov says. In addition, Russian equipment uses GLONASS/GPS standard, thus all GPS disturbancies can be counteracted by GLONASS satellites.

Shilov also notes that Roscosmos "offers high-precision GLONASS positioning services to the foreign countries. By 2010, accuracy up to 1 meter is planned to be maintained by special hardware". In addition, the partners will monitor GLONASS operations in order to detect problems to be recovered promptly by Roscosmos.

Any state can produce ground user equipment for two systems, or only for GLONASS.

A.Shilov also informed that Glonass-M satellites launched on Dec. 25 are already in their orbital positions in the GLONASS constellation. "They will be comissioned in January, and start providing navigation signal for users".

This launch is important because the GLONASS constellation now consists of 20 satellites, which cover Russian territory and provide continuos signal here. As for the global coverage, the gaps in the navigation signal become negligible.