Interfax: Shutdown of GPS stations in Russia would lower accuracy of U.S. precision weapons – source

(Interfax – May 14, 2014) The suspension of the operations of GPS ground stations on Russian territory could affect the accuracy of U.S. precision weapons throughout the world, a source from the Russian rocket industry told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.

“The shutdown of these 11 stations would affect GPS accuracy around the world, and this concerns primarily U.S. precision weapons. However, ordinary consumers have nothing to fear. For instance, automobile navigators will not feel such change in accuracy,” the source said in commenting on Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin’s Tuesday remarks to the effect that Russia would suspend operations of 11 GPS ground stations located in 10 regions of Russia in response to the unwillingness of the U.S. to allow the installation of identical stations of the Russian GLONASS navigation system on American s oil.

“The 11 stations in question are stations of the International GNSS Service (IGS). There are a total of 150 such stations installed worldwide. They help building an accurate geoid (earth) model, and the more accurate the model is, the more accurate are coordinates determined by navigation systems, particularly GPS. Any hole would affect the accuracy of the entire model,” he said.

The shutdown of the GPS stations located in Russia would have the most significant effect on the consumers of a high precision signal, i.e. geodesists around the world and also the U.S. military and its allies armed with precision weapons, drones, and other equipment reliant on an accurate GPS signal, he said.

GPS stations are currently located based on a 1993 agreement between Russia and the U.S. in such areas as the Kaluga, Sverdlovsk, Irkutsk, Magadan, and Sakhalin regions, the Krasnoyarsk territory, Yakutia, the Chukotka autonomous district, and some other locations.