SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM) is developing plans to push forward the implementation of a new, modern aviation surveillance system to be situated on aircraft equipment in Europe.
SESAR Deployment Manager pushes forward implementation of new aviation surveillance system
The new system, ADS-B, is a surveillance technique that relies on aircraft broadcasting their identity, position, and altitude, as well as other information derived from advanced on-board avionics, either on the ground (ADS-B Out) or onboard the aircraft (ADS-B In).
The European Commission (EC) Implementing Regualtion (EU) No 1207/2011 (Surveillance Performance and Interoperability) lays the requirements on the systems contributing to the provision of surveillance data, their constituents, and associated procedures.
The Regulation was twice amended and the last amendment postpones the aircraft equipment of ADS-B Out functionality to 7th June 2020, in line with US mandate deadlines.
The EC held a workshop in July this year in Brussels, Belgium, to present and analyse the Regulation’s current implementation status.
“It was evident that whilst progress had been made across Europe by Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP)s and airspace users, an additional effort to accelerate the ADS-B implementation is still required to meet the target date set by the Regulation,” said Nicolas Warinsko, General Manager, SESAR Deployment Manager.
“With this purpose, a coordinated and synchronised implementation plan would be paramount, i.e. a clear and consulted air/ground synchronised deployment programme, with a step-wise approach, comprehensive of exemption and incentive policies.
“Therefore, considering the upcoming deadline, strongly confirmed by EC, the workshop’s main target was twofold: first to present the results of the report on the status of implementation/future plans for ADS-B and other means of surveillance prepared by SDM, secondly to identify solutions to accelerate the ADS-B deployment and clarify the way forward.”
The report was tabled to the EC in May and then published on its website.
According to SDM’s report, ADS-B stations will increase in the near future as well as the number of Mode S radars.
“This is due to the fact that not all aircraft (including general aviation) are currently or will be equipped with ADS-B Out capability in the near future, and therefore radar coverage will still be needed to provide surveillance services to all air traffic,” said Warinsko.
“With regards to the airborne segment, currently around 20 percent of aircraft flying in Europe are equipped with the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1207/2011 compliant transponder.”
However, the report also confirms the ADS-B as a solution “ready to implement”, even already significantly implemented, it is a pure deployment issue, not subject to any further development, validation, standardisation or regulatory issue.
The SDM report findings and necessary actions derived from the report are summarised below:
As an outcome of the Workshop, the European Commission confirmed that:
- The final implementation dates set out in Regulation (EU) №1207/2011, as amended by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/386 – 2 January 2020 for the ground-based surveillance chains and 7 June 2020 for the airframes – stand and must be met;
- All the stakeholders are invited to communicate as soon as possible their implementation plans to SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM) that will feed this information into the “Air-Ground synchronised ADS-B implementation plan” that it has been mandated by the Commission to develop;
- This plan will be developed by SDM and consulted and agreed with all stakeholders possibly by the end of 2018 and will go into the execution phase in 2019;
- All stakeholders are invited to continue their ADS-B implementation in order to timely meet the applicable legal and technical requirements;
- In the context of the “Air-Ground synchronised ADS-B implementation plan” the exemption and incentives policies will be examined and potentially modified in order to contribute to an acceleration of deployment.
SDM, with the support of EUROCONTROL and in coordination with EASA, is currently developing a draft implementation plan that will be consulted with all relevant stakeholders over the coming months.
“With positive actions from the European Commission and under the coordination of SDM, there is increased optimism that ADS-B implementation will take a positive step forward and the European aviation industry will once again come together to make ADS-B deployment a success,” added Warinsko.
