The American intelligence agencies and the Pentagon have objections to the possible placement of Russian ground stations on American soil. The points would only the accuracy of gps counterpart, Glonass monitoring, claim the Russians.
Russia has been around since the eighties, working for a private satellite positioning system to activate. Under the name Glonass want the Russians an alternative to the American gps system develop, particularly as the Russian army was afraid that the US has a huge advantage. So would the American army in times of conflict may be the gps-signal aware can manipulate. Meanwhile, 24 Glonass satellites are available that global coverage is provided. Also, many of the recent gps-compatible chips are also compatible with Glonass.
Because satellites after a period of time slowly out of their orbit, and thus the positioning accuracy will decrease, there are ground stations needed to make the deviations to monitor and correct the navigatieberekeningen. Therefore, Russia, like the U.S. for its gps system, in several countries the ground stations placed. Russia has to the Americans in may 2012 requested to make a number of such measuring points on American territory.
The American ministry of Foreign Affairs was sympathetic in respect of the Russian request, because this would be good for the relations between the two countries. The CIA and other U.s. intelligence services, however, together with the Pentagon now to object. They claim that such ground stations on U.s. soil can be a hazard to national security, writes The New York Times.
The security services and the Us department of defense say especially afraid that the ground stations, the accuracy of satellietgestuurd Russian weapons will increase. In addition, it is feared that the ground stations for spionagedoeleinden can be used. Russia denies that the ground stations additional offensive capabilities and argues that these are intended only for the Glonass system to calibrate.
The Obama administration has, despite the criticism from the army and the intelligence services, the Russian request is not rejected. In addition, the ministry of Foreign Affairs that there is no danger lurks in the ground stations. It is unclear when a final decision will come.