Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) is only now starting to make inroads as a surveillance means more accurate and cost-effective than traditional radar. With the ground infrastructure slowly being built, someone has already come up with a new idea: why not put the ADS-B receivers on satellites and start a surveillance service that covers every nook and cranny of the planet, oceans and the deepest mountain valleys included, and sell the service to Air Navigation Service Providers? Whether as a second layer of surveillance or as the primary one, the satellite based solution promises to be much cheaper in deployment and cost of usage than the already not too expensive ground ADS-B network.
This is a very innovative and absolutely market oriented approach that is of course not without some risk. That surveillance data is essential is not in question. Whether ANSPs will be ready to relinquish their hold on the surveillance infrastructure and go for a more efficient and cheaper solution that is as good as or better than the existing heavy iron is the big question of course.
In any case, Iridium thinks the risk is worth taking. These are the same folks whose first attempt at bringing us satellite telephones was a flop but who have risen from the ashes offering more interesting and viable solutions.
Of course the idea is logical and the timing is good. With both Europe and the USA heading towards all aircraft being equipped with ADS-B, broadcasting their GPS derived position and other information for everyone who cares to listen to hear, a system not limited by geography or topography to pick up and forward the broadcast information makes perfect sense, especially if the cost of its deployment and operation is comparable or less than that of a ground based ADS-B network.
Iridium is planning to develop this service as one of its hosted payload solutions on the Iridium Next satellites. ADS-B would occupy about one half of the payload capacity on each of the satellites and hence the total cost would be shared by other hosted payload owners, making the price very attractive.
Continuous, world-wide coverage would be achieved though the totality of Iridium Next inter-linked satellites in different low-Earth orbits. The satellites are able to pick up the ADS-B messages and transmit them back to Earth in real time, a capability Iridium claims only they possess. Since even the existing Iridium constellation is being certified by the FAA for aviation safety services, meeting the FAA’s ADS-B related requirements with the Iridium Next constellation should be no problem, says Iridium.
This is not a done deal yet. Iridium will have to put together a consortium to fund, deploy and operate the service and of course they will have to find customers for all that aircraft position data. Apart from the universal, down to ground level coverage (which traditional ADS-B can only achieve with difficulty in mountainous areas and almost not at all over the high-seas), Iridium’s biggest trump card is price. Deploying the system in its shared payload configuration costs about a tenth of a comparable ground based ADS-B network with the data feed also being reasonably priced.
Knowing the inertia present in the global ATM industry and in view of a past scattered with the corpses of very good ideas that were never picked up, the risk Iridium is taking should not be underestimated. At the same time, with commercial pressure mounting on even the most recalcitrant air navigation providers, they might just jump at the opportunity to reduce their surveillance costs. If that happens, Iridium will have a sure winner on their hands.