Defense Ministry lifts restrictions on access to Russian global positioning system

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov has announced that his ministry has issued the necessary documents to allow civilian access to the global navigation satellite system (GLONASS). Now it will be accessible not only to the military, but also to civilians and commercial entities. With the restrictions out of the way, GLONASS should replace the American GPS system in Russia. The latter is presently a de facto standard system despite a number of legislative restrictions. On December 26 three more satellites were put into orbit, increasing the GLONASS constellation to 17 satellites. Eighteen satellites are necessary to ensure full coverage of Russian territory, and 24 satellites are needed for global coverage.