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Strategic Vision vol. 9, no. 46 (June, 2020)
Satellite Supremacy Deployment of BeiDou satellites sharpens threat from People’s Liberation Army Chris Liu
photo: NASA
I
Artist’s rendition of the GPS Block IIF interim satellite, used to keep the Navstar Global Positioning System operational.
n the 1980s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) realized the danger of relying on foreign Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems for military operations. In 1986, former CCP leader Deng Xiaoping initiated Plan 863 to promote satellite navigation technology as one of the key proj-
by the CCP in an effort to influence voters in Taiwan’s presidential election became disconnected and failed to hit their targets due to interruptions in US GPS signals. This incident was a great humiliation for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and it strengthened the Beijing authorities’ determination to develop their
ects in aerospace development. Concerns about relying on foreign PNT systems proved to be well-founded in the mid-1990s during the third Taiwan Strait crisis from 1995 to 1996, as ballistic missiles launched
own satellite navigation and positioning systems. In 2003, China accepted the European Union’s invitation to join the Galileo satellite navigation system. Due to security concerns and other differences, however, it
Chris Liu is a PhD student at the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies, National Defense University. He can be reached for comment at sirhc885new@gmail.com