Russian space officials say the country may spend almost $12 bln. on its GLONASS satellite navigation system in 2012-2020.

GLONASS is Russia's answer to the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS, and is designed for both military and civilian uses. Government sources told the press that space agency Roscosmos and economics ministry had agreed on a draft development program for the GLONASS project, and it had already been submitted for government's approval in late January.

The expenditures include $5 billion to support the system and $4.6 billion to develop it.

A group of 31 GLONASS satellites is currently in orbit, with 24 operating to provide global coverage, four in reserve and one undergoing trials. In 2020 Russia plans to have 30 satellites in orbit, including six in reserve.

To support the orbital grouping, Russia plans to launch 13 GLONASS-M satellites in 2012-2020 and 22 new-generation GLONASS-K spacecraft to replace the outdated spacecraft. For the purpose Russia will build eight Proton-M and 11 Soyuz-2.1b carrier rockets.

The first satellite-based radio navigation system developed in the Soviet Union was Tsiklon, (Cyclone) which had the purpose of providing ballistic missile submarines a method for accurate positioning.

31 Tsiklon satellites were launched between 1967 and 1978. The main problem with the system was that, although highly accurate for stationary or slow-moving ships, it required several hours of observation by the receiving station to fix a position, making it unusable for many navigation purposes and for the guidance of the new generation of ballistic missiles.

In 1968–1969, a new navigation system, which would support not only the navy, but also the air, land and space forces, was conceived. Formal requirements were completed in 1970; in 1976, the government made a decision to launch development of the "Unified Space Navigation System GLONASS".

The task of designing GLONASS was given to a group of young specialists in East Siberia in the city of Krasnoyarsk-26 (today called Zheleznogorsk). Under the leadership of Vladimir Cheremisin, they developed different proposals, from which the institute's director Grigory Chernyavsky selected the final one.

The work was completed in the late 1970s; the system would consist of 24 satellites operating at an altitude of 20,000 km in medium circular orbit. It would be able to promptly fix the receiving station's position based on signals from 4 satellites, and also reveal the object's speed and direction. The satellites would be launched 3 at a time on the heavy-lift Proton rocket.

Originally, GLONASS was designed to have an accuracy of 65 m, but in reality it had an accuracy of 20 m in the civilian signal and 10 m in the military signal. The first generation GLONASS satellites were 7.8 m tall, had a width of 7.2 m, measured across their solar panels, and a mass of 1,260 kg.

Ground tests of the first prototype satellites started in the early 1980s. Many of the produced parts were of low quality and engineers had to perform substantial redesigning, leading to a delay. On 12 October 1982, three satellites, designated Kosmos-1413, Kosmos-1414, and Kosmos-1415 were launched aboard a Proton rocket.

As only one GLONASS satellite was ready in time for the launch instead of the expected three, it was decided to launch it along with two mock-ups. The American media reported the event as a launch of one satellite and "two secret objects." For a long time, the Americans could not find out the nature of those "objects". The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) covered the launch, describing GLONASS as a system "created to determine positioning of civil aviation aircraft, navy transport and fishing-boats of the Soviet Union".

From 1982 through April 1991, the Soviet Union successfully launched a total of 43 GLONASS-related satellites plus five test satellites. When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, twelve functional GLONASS satellites in two planes were operational; enough to allow limited usage of the system.

We should mention that to cover the entire territory of the country, 18 satellites would have been necessary. The Russian Federation took over control of the constellation and continued its development.

In 1993, the system, consisting of 12 satellites, was formally declared operational. By December 2011 the constellation was finally brought to its optimal status of 24 operational satellites. ]

Since the first generation satellites operated for 3 years each, to keep the system at full capacity, two launches per year would have been necessary to maintain the full network of 24 satellites. However, in the financially difficult period of 1989–1999, the space program's funding was cut by 80% and Russia consequently found itself unable to afford this launch rate.

After December 1995, there were no further launches until December 1999. As a result, the constellation reached its lowest point of just 6 operational satellites in 2001. As a prelude to demilitarization, responsibility of the program was transferred from the Ministry of Defense to Russia's civilian space agency Roscosmos.

In the 2000s, under Vladimir Putin's presidency, the Russian economy recovered and state finances improved considerably. Putin himself took special interest in GLONASS and the system's restoration was made one of the government's top priorities. For this purpose, on August 2001, the Federal Targeted Program "Global Navigation System" 2002–2011 was launched. The program was given a budget of $420 million and aimed at restoring the full constellation by 2009.

On 10 December 2003, the second generation satellite design, GLONASS-M, was launched for the first time. It had a slightly larger mass than the baseline GLONASS, standing at 1,415 kg, but it had double the original's lifetime, decreasing the required replacement rate by 50%. The new satellite also had better accuracy and ability to broadcast two extra civilian signals.

In 2006, Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov ordered one of the signals (with an accuracy of 30 m) to be made available to civilian users. Putin, however, was not satisfied with this, and demanded that the whole system should be made fully available to everyone.

Consequently, on 18 May 2007, all restrictions were lifted. The accurate, formerly military-only signal with a precision of 10 m, has since then been freely available to civilian users.

During the middle of the first decade of 21st century, the Russian economy boomed, resulting in substantial increases in the country's space budget. In 2007, the financing of the GLONASS program was increased considerably; its budget was more than doubled.

While in 2006 the GLONASS had received $181 million from the federal budget, in 2007 the amount was increased to $380 million.

$4.7 billion were spent on the program 2001–2011, making it Roscosmos' largest project and consuming a third of its 2010 budget of $2.8 billion.

The military importance of having a domestic, independent satellite navigation system was highlighted by the 2008 South Ossetia war in August 2008: during the hostilities, the American GPS system was completely blacked out in the region. In September 2008, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a decree allocating additional $2.6 billion to GLONASS from the federal budget.

Although the GLONASS constellation has reached global coverage, its commercialization, especially development of the user segment, has been lacking compared to the American GPS system. For example, the first commercial Russian-made GLONASS navigation device for cars, was introduced in 2007, but it was much bigger and more costly than similar GPS receivers.

In late 2010, there were only a handful of GLONASS receivers on the market, and few of them were meant for civil consumers.

To improve development of the user segment, on August 11, 2010, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov announced a plan to introduce a 25% import duty on all GPS-capable devices, including mobile phones, unless they are compatible with GLONASS. As well, the government is planning to force all car manufacturers in Russia to make cars with GLONASS starting from 2011. This will affect all car makers, including foreign brands like Ford and Toyota, which have car assembly facilities in Russia.

Current GPS and phone baseband chips from major vendors ST-Ericsson, Broadcom and Qualcomm all support GLONASS in combination with GPS.

In April 2011, Sweden's Swepos, a national network of satellite reference stations which provides data for real-time positioning with meter accuracy, become the first known foreign company to use GLONASS.