cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32183144
Generated Summary below:
Video Description:
Iran has just shut off GPS across its territory — and switched to China’s Beidou satellite system. Why now? What does it mean for U.S. dominance in space-based navigation and warfare? In this episode of GVS Deep Dive, Najma Minhas unpacks Iran’s bold strategic pivot — and why it may mark the beginning of the end for America’s global GPS monopoly. From WhatsApp tracking scandals and drone warfare to China’s high-precision Beidou system and Belt & Road integration, this decision carries major military and geopolitical consequences.
Watch till the end to understand: Why GPS was always a tool of U.S. soft power
How the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis pushed China to develop Beidou
What makes Beidou uniquely powerful in battlefield environments
How Iran and the Global South are quietly building independence from Western tech
Will more countries ditch GPS and align with China’s Beidou system?
#GVSDeepDive #Beidou #IranGPS #ChinaTech #Geopolitics #SatelliteWars
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Najma tweets @MinhasNajma
Najma Minhas is Managing Editor, Global Village Space. She has worked with National Economic Research Associates (NERA) in New York, Lehman Brothers in London and Standard Chartered Bank in Pakistan. Before launching GVS, she worked as a consultant with World Bank, and USAID. Najma studied Economics at London School of Economics and International Relations at Columbia University, NewYork. She tweets at @MinhasNajma.
Generated Summary:
Main Topic: Iran’s decision to disable GPS across its territory and adopt China’s Beidou (Bato) satellite navigation system, and the implications of this shift for U.S. dominance in space and global geopolitics.
Key Points:
- Iran’s Shift: Iran has disabled GPS and adopted China’s Beidou, a geopolitical statement driven by concerns over cyber warfare, electronic jamming, and dependence on Western-dominated systems.
- Reasons for the Shift:
- Rising cyber warfare threats and tensions with the US and Israel.
- Geostrategic alignment with China, which offers technical superiority in some areas.
- A scandal involving alleged leaks of Iranian officials’ locations via WhatsApp and Instagram.
- GPS Origins and Dominance: GPS, built and controlled by the US military, became the backbone of global navigation. The US unlocked high precision for civilian access in 2000, fueling the growth of smartphones, Uber, and precision agriculture.
- China’s Beidou as a Competitor: China developed Beidou after realizing its military vulnerability during the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis. Beidou now rivals GPS, with more satellites and ground stations, offering better positioning accuracy in some regions and unique features like short message communication.
- Beidou’s Capabilities: Beidou offers high accuracy, anti-jamming protections, and short message communication. It powers over 1.5 billion users daily and is integrated into China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
- Implications for Iran: Beidou provides Iran with a secure, independent navigation network, enhancing the precision of its military operations and strengthening its economic resilience under sanctions.
- Future Trends: China aims to make Beidou the world’s go-to system by 2035. The US is upgrading its GPS system, but these upgrades offer only moderate improvements.
Highlights:
- Iran’s move is not just a tech upgrade but a geopolitical realignment, signaling a shift away from Western digital hegemony.
- Beidou is becoming a first-choice alternative for countries seeking political independence.
- The US Space Force acknowledges that GPS is lagging in updates.
- Beidou’s short message communication feature is a unique strategic capability not offered by GPS.
- The video poses the question of whether more countries will follow Iran’s lead and adopt Beidou.
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They stop using GPS recievers, therefore nothing for GPS to connect to.
Its a slow transition, but it is one of magnitude. The US could shut down the satilites over Iran, like Starlink did it with Russia/Ukraine.
They are preparing for that, and mostly for the US to loose the power to potentially do it. It matters in case of all out war.
They can’t shut down the satellites over Iran. That’s not how GPS works. They aren’t geostationary with tight beams like comm satellites. Every GPS satellite goes around the earth twice a day and has a beam that covers the entire earth plus something like 10 degrees on the sides out into space (circular, not actually side to side). While the US can turn off broadcasting while directly over very large swaths at a time (like, say, China and Russia), it isn’t actually turned off on the ground because there will still be satellites over Europe or northern Africa that will be on and sending data at a higher angle to that large swath. It will be lower powered in that region because the signal power is lower at the edges, but it isn’t off. Also, Iran is in the same region as US allies and US military bases: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc; so the US would be unlikely to want to lower GPS power in that region.
Starlink is very different in how it sends signals to the earth, which is why it can shut off services to areas.
It’s stupid to not just use all the available systems. Don’t just support Beidou. Use Beidou, Galileo (European), GLONASS (Russia) and GPS. Makes lock on faster, increases precision and helps if one doesn’t work for whatever reason.
The US cannot just shutdown Iran’s usage. That would impact all other countries as well. GPS consists of only about 30 satellites for the whole world. Starlink satellites are much much lower and can thus be more easily associated with one country.
Echoing this, civilian GNSS is a passive system, and I’m all for redundancy, you should be using all four constellations for the highest accuracy and fastest lock.
Yes, you should use it for the fastest lock, but if your interest is to keep the US out of influence, ofc they would do it.
Either that, or they do it to please China hoping for an ally. Second option might be their played hand, even if it doesnt work.
this video just makes 0 sense. they didn’t “disable” GPS and they most probably didn’t just start using beidou today