Belarusian and Russian Specialists Discuss Cooperation in Radionavigation

A Russian delegation visited Belarus on 4-5 April 2017 at the invitation of Goscomvoyenprom, which is responsible for the implementation of the state policy in the field of navigation. The delegation included representatives of Internavigation RTC and the Russian Institute of Radionavigation and Time.
The parties held meetings to discuss cooperation in the field of radionavigation. The Belarusian side was represented by specialists from Goscomvoyenprom, the Defence Ministry, AGAT-Control Systems (a network operator in the field of navigation in Belarus) and Midivisana.
Representatives of the parties visited the long-range radionavigation station RSDN-3/10 (the town of Slonim) where they examined the state of equipment, systems and antenna-mast structures of the facility.
The Chayka (Tropik-2) hyperbolic pulse-phase long-range radionavigation system is designed to determine the location of mobile objects (aircraft, watercraft and land transport) and solve transportation tasks, including the flight of aircraft along the route, navigation of ships in coastal waters, as well as land traffic control.
The European chain of the system (RSDN-3/10) was put into operation in 1972 and has five stations located in Petrozavodsk, Simferopol, Karachev (Bryansk Region), Slonim (Grodno Region) and Syzran (Samara Region). It has coverage of about 6.5 million square kilometres and allows for determining plane coordinates with accuracy from 60 to 1,500 metres at a range of up to 1,900 kilometres.
All the RSDN-3/10 stations have been modernised, except for the station in Slonim.
As a result of the visit, the parties determined a procedure for organising the work and the list of activities necessary for the further operation of the station and the expansion of its functional capabilities. In addition, the parties considered the possibilities of increasing the station’s accuracy characteristics and transmitting time signals and differential corrections to the signals of pulse-phase and satellite navigation systems.
The subsequent scientific and technical cooperation between Belarusian and Russian contracting companies will be ensured through the CIS Interstate Radionavigation Programme for the period until 2020. A relevant project has already been included in the draft programme.
The whole scope of work is planned to be done in 2017-2020.

Translated by Olga Klevko