The new system will allow for creating a precise 3D model of Earth as well as tracking ground objects.
"In the beginning of 2015, the Defense Industrial Commission decided that Russia will develop the system on its own. Then, a roadmap was agreed," a source in the industry told the Russian newspaper Izvestia.
According to the project design, the system will comprise five satellite vehicles. The first launch is scheduled for 2019, the source added.
The key component of the new system is an active phased array antenna for the on-board radar station.
Russia’s Roselektronika Company is expected to develop, test and unveil the first Russian-made transmitter-receiver device in the first quarter of 2016.
In 2013, Russia’s Lavochkin Research and Production Association won the tender. The company was expected to buy electronic parts for the radar from ADS and then mount them on the satellite platform. After the West imposed sanctions against a number of Russian companies over the Ukrainian crisis the decision was made to develop the entire system in Russia.
If the project is successful Russia could import such systems, specialists said.
