India, Russia to launch 18 navigation satellites

Taking their strategic partnership to space, India and Russia were set to enter into an agreement to jointly launch 18 navigation satellites to restore, develop and commercialise the former Soviet global navigation system, Glonass, a top Russian space official said.

The Indo-Russian Glonass global navigation system""an alternative to the Pentagon-controlled global positioning system""would have the accuracy of one metre resolution and would have civilian as well as military applications, chief of Russian Federal Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) Gen Anatoly N Perminov said today, ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's three-day India visit, starting on December 3.

"Given the level of mutual trust and confidence between the two nations, India will be Russia's only foreign partner in Glonass, and an agreement is ready for signing during Putin's visit," Gen Perminov said.

"The Glonass project is an important agreement, a breakthrough in bilateral space cooperation. Russia has incomplete system as instead of 24 satellites in the orbit, we now have only 11, while India has no such system," he said.