The Glonass satellites are being used to ensure the work of the Russian precision-guided weapons in Syria, a senior space industry official said Friday.
"Glonass is the system which is the most important for us. Not only is this a system, it ensures national security. This is the matter of those five or six meters in Syria, aiming of precision weapons which is less effective without such systems," Nikolai Testoyedov, the head of the Information Satellite Systems (ISS) company, which manufactures satellites for the Glonass project, said in a speech.
Glonass, a global navigation system operated by the Russian Aerospace Forces, consists of 28 satellites, 23 of them operational. The system allows real-time positioning and speed data for surface, sea and airborne objects around the world.
++ Russia's High Precision Weapons Proved Well in Syria – Putin
Russia's high precision weapons proved themselves well during military operations in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
"High precision and cruise missiles affirmed their tactical and technical characteristics and as you have already noticed, the high precision long-distance air and sea-based weapons were used in combat conditions in the Syrian Arab Republic in the fight against terrorism for the first time," Putin said during a meeting with military top brass in the southern Russian resort city of Sochi on the Black Sea.
He said that conclusions should be made to further improve the weapons systems as well as improve the military might of the Russian Army and Navy.
Earlier on Wednesday, Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said flaws in Russia's military operations in Syria mentioned in Putin's statements on May 10 were of a "work-related character" and involve the functioning of some of the equipment used in the operations.
"This type of information is pretty much work-related, but it can naturally be said that first and foremost this is about the functioning of one or another piece of equipment or the operation of one or another piece of technical equipment. And of course this is being analyzed in order to make the appropriate perfections of this technical equipment," Peskov told journalists.
Peskov declined to specify which type of equipment was found to be faulty citing the "sensitivity" of the subject, but said more detailed information may be received from the Ministry of Defense.