By Li Hongmei
The Beidou Navigation System, China's version of GPS, will give the People's Liberation Army the ability to reach US land targets with its DF-31A Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, according to the Canada-based Kanwa Defense Weekly.
The first-generation of the satellite positioning system was able to help the PLA locate its ships and aircraft. Upgrades in the second-generation software provided positioning and messaging services in the Asia-Pacific region since Dec. 2012, and also increased the accuracy of missile strikes, according to the article.
Normal civilian users can locate their position within a range of 10 meters, although the accuracy provided to the Second Artillery Corps, China's strategic missile force, remains unknown.
By 2020, the Beidou navigation system, composed of 16 satellites, will be technologically on par with the US Global Positioning System(GPS), which can provide an accuracy between five and six meters.
