Intelligence experts have suggested that Iran may be utilising China’s highly accurate satellite navigation system, BeiDou (BDS), to target Israel and United States military assets in the Middle East.
Alain Juillet, the former director of intelligence for France’s General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) from 2002 to 2003, noted that a “surprise” of the current conflict is the increased accuracy of Iranian missiles compared to the war eight months ago, reports Al Jazeera.
Speaking to the Tocsin podcast, Juillet stated that access to the Chinese system is a realistic explanation for this precision, as significant targets have been hit.
The reports come amidst a surge in hostilities. Following US-Israeli attacks that began on 28 February and the killing of top Iranian figures, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran has launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones. While many have been intercepted, several have breached defences, causing significant casualties and damage.
The end of a monopoly
The potential shift to BeiDou marks a significant challenge to the US government-owned Global Positioning System (GPS). While Washington can jam or deny GPS access to its adversaries, it has little power to interfere with China’s BDS.
Theo Nencini, a research fellow at the ChinaMed Project, told Al Jazeera that Iran’s integration of Chinese systems began as early as 2015 with a memorandum of understanding to adopt BeiDou-2.
Implementation reportedly accelerated after the signing of the Sino-Iranian Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in March 2021, which is believed to have granted Tehran access to encrypted military signals. Analysts believe Iran completed its full transition to BeiDou in June 2025, following a “12-day war” with Israel where GPS disruptions hindered Iranian operations.
Technical superiority and resilience
The Chinese system offers a formidable alternative to Western technology. According to data from Al Jazeera’s AJ Labs, the BeiDou system relies on 45 satellites, significantly outnumbering the 24 satellites used by the US GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, or the European Union’s Galileo.
Military analyst Patricia Marins noted that unlike civilian-grade GPS signals, which were paralysed in 2025, the BDS-3 military-tier signal is “essentially unjammable”.
It employs complex frequency hopping and Navigation Message Authentication to prevent “spoofing” or the transmission of false coordinates. Furthermore, the system allows for short message communication, enabling operators to redirect drones or missiles up to 2,000km away while in flight.
Brussels-based analyst Elijah Magnier explained that while Iranian weapons previously relied on inertial navigation – which is resistant to interference but loses accuracy over time – the addition of satellite signals allows for a margin of error of less than one metre.
Regional and global implications
Analysts describe Iran’s access to such technology as a “game-changer”. Nencini argued that if the effectiveness of BeiDou is confirmed, neighbouring states may reconsider their own reliance on GPS, potentially leading to a less US-centric regional navigation architecture.
The conflict also provides Beijing with an opportunity to “field-test” its capabilities in a large-scale operational theatre. By observing the performance of missiles guided by BeiDou, China can assess the effectiveness of its systems against American 5th-generation fighter aircraft, such as the F-35, and US interception capabilities.
Despite these developments, the exact size of Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal remains unknown. Juillet observed that Iran’s vast geography – three times the size of France – and the use of mobile truck launchers make it difficult for US and Israeli forces to track and destroy all targets.
There are further concerns in Washington that the US’s supply of expensive interceptor missiles is being depleted by inexpensive Iranian Shahed drones, leading the Trump administration to seek interceptor technology from Ukraine.
