New | China's Beidou navigation system 'completely open' for Asian neighbours, official says

China’s home-grown satellite navigation system will bring untold economic, social and military benefits – and other countries in Asia are welcome to use it, the director of China’s satellite navigation agency said on Friday.

The year-old Beidou satellite navigation system is a rival to the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russia’s Glonass. Beidou’s 16 satellites serve the Asia-Pacific but the number of satellites is expected to grow to 30 by 2020 as coverage expands globally.

The system would bring benefits across the board, in both civilian and military applications, said Ran Chengqi, the director of the Satellite Navigation Office.

“The construction of the Beidou network should resolve the country’s security issues, including economic security and the security of society at large,” he said. “It’s obviously a combined military and civilian infrastructure.

“What purpose it will have for national defence or armament, that’s for the armament department or Defence Ministry to consider, but I think that its uses are many,” Ran told a news conference.

The successful deployment of Beidou means the increasingly potent Chinese armed forces will have an accurate, independent navigation system – vital technology for guiding the missiles, warships and attack aircraft that allow Beijing to claim power.

Senior Chinese military officers have said that Beidou is more important for the country than manned space flight or the Chinese lunar probes now under way, according to reports in the state-run media.