ST. PETERSBURG, June 1. /TASS/. Russia’s Glonass navigation satellites will be better protected against cyber attacks, Chief Designer of Glonass Company (the operator of the Era-Glonass system) Mikhail Korablyov told TASS on the sidelines of the Transport Security forum on Friday.

He said that one of his company’s main tasks, along with increasing the Glonass system’s accuracy, is to enhance protection of the signal against so-called spoofing attacks, in which an original satellite signal is replaced with a fake one.

"There is a problem in tampering with sea navigation data. All maritime vessels use satellite navigation, and there were documented cyber attacks on ships, as a result of which their exact whereabouts could not be traced. That’s why better cyber defences will be one of the new program’s primary tasks, along with increasing its accuracy," he said.

The source did not elaborate on what technologies are to be used for the purpose.

As was reported earlier, Russia’s strategy of developing the Glonass satellite orbital grouping through 2033 stipulates that from 2030 the Glonass system will fully consist of 24 new Glonass-K2 space vehicles that will be manufactured using only domestic components.

The Glonass-K2 is due to become a follow-up of Glonass-K satellites (two such satellites are operational in the Glonass orbital grouping). The new satellite will be transmitting nine navigation signals and will weigh about 1,800 kg (twice as much the Glonass-K). Russia plans to launch the first Glonass-K2 satellite into orbit in late 2019 - early 2020.

Earlier on Friday, Korablyov told TASS that new Glonass-K2 satellites will improve the accuracy of Russia’s satellite navigation system from 3-5 meters to 1 meter.