Page 2 of 2 Galileo: Europe's great
leap
outward By Jose Carlos Matias
military capabilities of China. In
addition, the Europeans could be, in practice,
contradicting the arms embargo imposed on Beijing
in the aftermath of the Tiananmen massacre of
1989.
In the worst-case scenario - a war
between mainland China and Taiwan - the PLA would
be using the European GNSS in a war against
Taiwanese military forces. The possibility of the
PLA using the Galileo system was ruled out by EU
authorities, since
the
most accurate signal, the Public Regulated Service
(PRS), is encrypted and can only be used by
specific entities: the European Police Office
(Europol), the European Anti-Fraud Office (Office
Europeen de Lutte Anti-Fraude, or OLAF), civil
protection services, safety services (Maritime
Safety Agency), emergency response services,
humanitarian response teams, and the EU
peacekeeping forces involved in the Petersburg
Tasks missions.
In any case, the US was
not convinced by this guarantee and spurred the
development of a new generation of GPS satellites.
In 2004, a British media report revealed that the
United States was developing anti-satellite
systems capable of wiping out EU Galileo
satellites if they were being used against US
troops.
For the EU, the partnership with
China represents an attractive opportunity to have
access to a promising transport and
telecommunication market. Right after the signing
of the EU-China agreement, Loyola de Palacio, then
European commissioner for transport and energy,
made Europe's stand very clear, stating, "China
will help Galileo become the major world
infrastructure for the growing market for location
services."
This level of cooperation can
only be understood in light of a Sino-European
"maturing and comprehensive partnership" based on
intense economic and political linkages.
Simultaneously, the EU has been projecting itself
as a global player - for some analysts, a rather
civilian power - with ambition to develop its
autonomy and independence from the US in terms of
military capabilities.
Growing
competition from China, Russia In Beijing's
eyes, cooperation in the Galileo project is seen
as part of a strategy of strengthening China's
position in the international arena, by
cooperating in a sensitive technology that
disrupts US hegemony in GNSS. In addition, this
cooperation appears to be a golden opportunity to
benefit from the transfer of expertise and
technology in such a sensitive asset. This would
be extremely useful in tandem with the Chinese
Space Strategy.
In 2000, China published
the White Paper on Space Activities,
declaring that the creation of an independent
satellite navigation and positioning system was a
priority. The embryo of this system was already in
orbit when China and the EU agreed on the
partnership. The Beidou system consisted, at the
time, of three geostationary satellites, whose
positioning and navigation coverage and accuracy
were far behind what Galileo aimed for.
Analysts believed that the future Beidou-2
(also called Compass System), a 35-satellite
constellation, would only be used by the military
- this would justify the decision of investing 230
million euros in the Galileo system. Last
November, however, China's official news agency,
Xinhua, unveiled that the Beidou system would
provide, from 2008 onward, commercial open
services with a 10-meter accuracy. It was noted
that this service could be "free of charge" for
the Chinese people and to other countries that
would sign agreements with China.
In
addition to Chinese pressure, Russia announced
this May that its own GNSS, the Glonass system,
which had been only partially operable, would be
fully operable and available "for free" to
customers in 2009 after the deployment of the
remaining satellites of a constellation of 24.
Meanwhile, the process of deployment of the first
four Galileo satellites went into crisis because
of strong disagreements among the national
industries of consortia responsible to build and
deploy those satellites.
So far, only one
satellite - Giove A - has been deployed (in
December 2005). The whole process is delayed, and
what was supposed to be in orbit and operable in
2008 was postponed to 2011-12. In face of these
hurdles, the EU transport ministers asked the EC
to draw a plan to "bail out" Galileo through
public funding.
Currently, the EU faces
growing pressure from the other major space powers
in the realm of satellite positioning and
navigation. With the new developments of the
Beidou system, the promise of profitable access to
the Chinese transport and telecommunication market
may be in danger. What was deemed to be strategic
cooperation may become strategic competition.
The progress in the Beidou system implies
that Chinese authorities were aware of its
probable limitations in seizing the military
benefits of the transfer of technology. At this
moment, it is not clear how the EU-China
partnership will evolve, given that it faces a
complex network of common and contradictory
interests.
It is plausible that both
parties will reach a solution to share the market
through consultation. It is important, however, to
bear in mind that the EU-China relationship is
still, to some extent, a consequence of the other
parts of the triangular equation: the US-China
relationship and the US-EU trans-Atlantic
alliance.
The rapidly announced
development of the Chinese Beidou system and the
Russian Glonass has put pressure on EU authorities
to solve the imbroglio and spur the deployment of
the remaining satellites. As a reaction to the
foreseeable competition, Brussels has been eager
to set up agreements with other countries.
Last month, the ESA paved the way to
satellite cooperation with Africa through a
cooperation agreement with the Agency for Security
of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar.
Previously, Israel, Ukraine, India, Morocco, Saudi
Arabia and South Korea had signed agreements to
become partners and join the Galileo project.
In the meantime, even if there are some
doubts on the commercial feasibility, it is
becoming clear that the defense and military
applications are, per se, a strong reason to use
European taxpayer money to save Galileo.
Published with permission of thePower and Interest News
Report, an analysis-based
publication that seeks to provide insight into
various conflicts, regions and points of interest
around the globe. All comments should be directed
to content@pinr.com.
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