Navigation systems are vital for military platforms, especially long-range missiles.

Navigation systems are one of the most necessary infrastructures today in order to reach the right target and to direct the operations properly. China had taken action in recent years to set up its own satellite system, as countries did not allow their own infrastructure to be used by other countries, or because they were vulnerable to sabotage in the event of a war. In this context, Beijing recently completed the installation of its own navigation infrastructure by placing the BeiDou-3 satellite in orbit with the Long March-3D satellite launch system.

The Chinese global positioning system, established at a cost of 10 billion USD, is the fourth infrastructure after the US GPS, European Galileo and Russian GLONASS. The first satellite was launched in 2000 as part of the Beidou development work started in the 1990s. The Beidou system contains 35 satellites.