China to Network Land, Sea Borders with High Tech Surveillance System

Chinese China North Industries Group Corp Ltd (NORINCO) is building a new frontier and coastline surveillance system with high level accuracy to identify human and other targets using the home-developed BeiDou Satellite Navigation System, or BDS, at its core.

Called BeiDou+ Land and Maritime Defense and Control System (BLMDCS), the system will provide high precision monitoring and communication capability for border defense personnel and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), Yang Hua, the project leader from NORINCO, told Global Times on Thursday on the sidelines of the 10th China Satellite Navigation Conference in Beijing.

Under the BLMDCS project land-based Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) are to be built every 40 to 50 kilometers along the country's land and maritime border to achieve an extreme high precision position, reaching centimeter-level accuracy on moving targets and millimeter-level accuracy on static ones, Yang said.

Some 2,000 CORS stations have already been deployed and put into use in border and interior regions, including Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province, and islands and reefs in the South China Sea.

The high precision system can make drones carry out more frequent routine patrols in regions with perilous climates or geographical conditions, which greatly protects the lives of frontier army men, Yang said.

The BDS can also provide short messaging services to its users. This can help frontier soldiers holding BeiDou-enabled terminals on mission, either at land or sea, to contact the rear more efficiently, helping the frontier soldiers better respond to emergency situations, Yang said.

According to Yang, "the system has also been used as part of the local anti-terrorist campaign in Xinjiang, which has been proven effective."