GPS was created in the early 1970s, when the Department of Defense (DOD) wanted to guarantee a stable, accessible satellite navigation system for military use. ![]() GPS is the first and still predominant GNSS-so much so that using satellite navigation is synonymous with the initialism GPS. A careful analysis of BeiDou and the multi-GNSS environment reveals that, although BeiDou does not represent a technological coup for the Chinese, it does constitute an incremental erosion of American technical prestige by presenting a viable alternative to GPS in an important sector that billions of people around the world use every day. This closer look sheds light on the likely impact of BeiDou, as it considers the system’s integration with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the relationship with Russia and the EU, security concerns, and relative accuracy. An examination of the various types of GNSS reveals differences in their development and military use/adoption as well as in international response to them. Although much speculation and debate exist, it remains unclear if BeiDou will matter to the United States and other Western powers. 3 But BeiDou is only the latest GNSS to come online since the United States developed GPS. With the launch of its final satellite to reach full system capability, China completed BeiDou in June 2020, and much has been made of the system and its features thus far. Today, four countries operate GNSS: the United States has GPS, Russia has GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS), the European Union (EU) has Galileo, and China has the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, usually referred to as “BeiDou.” Japan and India have regional systems, and even the United Kingdom is planning for its own constellation since leaving the EU. ![]() scientists pioneered a global positioning system (GPS). GNSS were created almost 50 years ago when U.S. Simply put, it has become a vital service. ![]() GNSS supports millions of applications that track and analyze our everyday lives-from farming, to finance, to reliable Internet. 1 Such GNSS capabilities are considered so essential that countries and alliances are simply unwilling to rely on each other for a system that is now considered indispensable to sovereignty. Generally, a GNSS has a constellation of at least 24 satellites in medium-Earth orbit (about 12,550 miles high) spread out around the world to deliver global service. The GNSS applications people use fall into five major categories: location (determining a position), navigation (getting from one location to another), tracking (monitoring movement of people or objects), mapping (creating maps of the world), and timing (calculating time). Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) provide a service many people take for granted.
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