China approves Iran’s usage of Beidou Satellite Systems

Beidou
Photo Credit: Belt & Road News

The close cooperation between China and Iran continues to develop in different fields such as the fight against coronavirus, the One Belt One Road, trade exchanges, and friendly collaboration.

China and Iran maintained close military-to-military relations throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Additionally, China helped Iran boost its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities by selling tactical ballistic and anti-ship cruise missiles, advanced anti-ship mines to Iran. China also provided technical expertise to Iran for helping develop Tehran’s indigenous Nasr anti-ship cruise missile.

According to Iran’s embassy in Beijing, China and Iran agreed to Iran’s usage of the Beidou navigation satellite system (BDS).

GPS came into full operation in 1995, when Russia, Europe, and China subsequently put their satellite navigation systems into full use. In recent years, China has been actively promoting BDS’s construction and development, and in 2015, China launched the third generation BDS for global coverage.

China successfully put its final Beidou satellite into orbit, completing a navigation network years in the making and setting the stage to challenge the U.S.owned Global Positioning System (GPS).30 satellites of the BDS-3 system have been operating to provide full services to the World. Many countries using Beidou services are involved in the Belt and Road initiative spearheaded by China to create a modern-day Silk Road.

Thanks to GPS systems, cruise missiles can engage more successfully than ballistic missiles. Iran has made serious progress in producing ballistic missiles in recent years, while it has no cruise missile. The USA’s Tomahawk and the Russians’ Kalibr cruise missiles can engage with a low margin of error thanks to their precision guidance systems. By using the BeiDOU, Iran can produce BDS Guided cruise missiles. This capability, which Iran to have, will increase Israeli security concerns.