RFE/RL Security Watch Vol. 1, No. 14, 23 October 2000

THREE NEW MILITARY SATELLITES IN ORBIT. The Russian Defense
Ministry has put three new Hurricane military satellites
into orbit, boosting the military's telecommunication
system GLONASS, the military news agency reported on 14
October. Created in 1993, GLONASS is analogous to the U.S.
NAVSTAR system. Initially it had 24 satellites, but because
more had re-entered the atmosphere than been launched over
the last few years, the number had fallen to eight before
this latest launch. Another reason why there were so few
new launches is that the army has many more immediate
problems than satellite communications. At present, the
U.S. army has 200,000 receiving stations for NAVSTAR;
Russia has only 1,000.

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RFE/RL Security Watch Vol. 1, No. 14, 23 October 2000