In satellite tech race, China hitched a ride from Europe:
HONG KONG: Chinese leader Xi Jinping has exhorted the People's Liberation Army "to get ready to fight and win wars" and "to win regional warfare under information technology-oriented conditions."
For now, China's sprawling defense industries and research laboratories are relying on a high-tech short cut. In a vast and carefully coordinated effort, China is scouring the globe for know-how that can be coupled with domestic innovation to produce strategic weapons and equipment.
A year ago this month, technicians at a maker of satellite navigation gear in the Belgian town of Leuven worked over the year-end holidays to test one such breakthrough. The Belgians loaded their receivers with a technical code for a new satellite-navigation system called Beidou, or Big Dipper.
The signal from the new Chinese system provided a surprisingly accurate position fix. "It was certainly better than you would expect from somebody doing this for the first time," says Jan Van Hees, sales manager for privately owned Septentrio, which plans to sell civilian equipment that can use Beidou's signal.
It wasn't beginner's luck, though. China had help - and it came from European Union headquarters in Brussels, just down the road from Leuven.
Know-how for the Beidou Navigation System, according to interviews with European researchers, a review of diplomatic cables and articles from military and technical journals, came from a technology partnership between Beijing and the European Union. The Chinese essentially piggybacked on a European satellite-navigation initiative, called Galileo, that was meant to rival two existing networks: the dominant Global Positioning System of the United States, or GPS, and Russia's GLONASS.
Sixteen Beidou satellites are now in orbit, with the network scheduled to expand to 30 when fully deployed by 2020. Europe's Galileo is expected to become operational next year with 18 satellites. When fully deployed by 2020, the EU constellation will also have 30 satellites.
Senior Chinese military officers have said Beidou is more important to China than manned space flight or the Chinese lunar probes now under way, according to reports in the state-run media. 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 great power status.
Beidou is one of the most striking examples of China's global quest to buy, copy or steal the technology it needs to close the gap with the United States and other leading military powers. Highly accurate satellite navigation is fundamental to modern warfare. Aerospace experts say European and U.S. know-how and equipment have been indispensable for China to design, build, launch, position, test and operate its navigation network and other satellites.
To be continue...
HONG KONG: Chinese leader Xi Jinping has exhorted the People's Liberation Army "to get ready to fight and win wars" and "to win regional warfare under information technology-oriented conditions."
For now, China's sprawling defense industries and research laboratories are relying on a high-tech short cut. In a vast and carefully coordinated effort, China is scouring the globe for know-how that can be coupled with domestic innovation to produce strategic weapons and equipment.
A year ago this month, technicians at a maker of satellite navigation gear in the Belgian town of Leuven worked over the year-end holidays to test one such breakthrough. The Belgians loaded their receivers with a technical code for a new satellite-navigation system called Beidou, or Big Dipper.
The signal from the new Chinese system provided a surprisingly accurate position fix. "It was certainly better than you would expect from somebody doing this for the first time," says Jan Van Hees, sales manager for privately owned Septentrio, which plans to sell civilian equipment that can use Beidou's signal.
It wasn't beginner's luck, though. China had help - and it came from European Union headquarters in Brussels, just down the road from Leuven.
Know-how for the Beidou Navigation System, according to interviews with European researchers, a review of diplomatic cables and articles from military and technical journals, came from a technology partnership between Beijing and the European Union. The Chinese essentially piggybacked on a European satellite-navigation initiative, called Galileo, that was meant to rival two existing networks: the dominant Global Positioning System of the United States, or GPS, and Russia's GLONASS.
Sixteen Beidou satellites are now in orbit, with the network scheduled to expand to 30 when fully deployed by 2020. Europe's Galileo is expected to become operational next year with 18 satellites. When fully deployed by 2020, the EU constellation will also have 30 satellites.
Senior Chinese military officers have said Beidou is more important to China than manned space flight or the Chinese lunar probes now under way, according to reports in the state-run media. 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 great power status.
Beidou is one of the most striking examples of China's global quest to buy, copy or steal the technology it needs to close the gap with the United States and other leading military powers. Highly accurate satellite navigation is fundamental to modern warfare. Aerospace experts say European and U.S. know-how and equipment have been indispensable for China to design, build, launch, position, test and operate its navigation network and other satellites.
To be continue...