The SESAR programme was launched on 3 June 2009. Now almost two years since its launch, It’s a good time to take stock of the status of the programme’s 300 projects, assess progress in the execution of the first SESAR release and the first project deliverables. In a short interview, Florian Guillermet, SESAR JU Chief Programme Officer, gives his evaluation of the programme and the first release, and looks at some of the challenges facing SESAR in the second half of 2011..
At mid 2011, what is the situation of the SESAR programme in general?
It’s almost time to celebrate the second anniversary of SESAR’s launch, and after two years of hard work we’ve made great progress: the ramp-up phase of the programme is complete and 85% of projects are now in full execution mode; the first concrete deliverables are arriving; all the programme management processes are now in place; and the programme delivery approach through SESAR Releases has been implemented. In addition, we are now fully integrating airspace users into the programme and they will directly participate in the execution of projects. Overall, we are on track…
What is the status of the first SESAR Release? How confident are you in SESAR’s first achievements?
We are closely monitoring the progress of the first SESAR Release. So far, two exercises have already been performed according to schedule, and analysis of their results is on-going. The release monitoring and maturity assessment is mainly performed through System Engineering reviews that aim to control the way the release is being developed. The next review in June 2011, will give a much more accurate idea of the status of the first SESAR Release..
The first SESAR Release is pioneering in its approach, as this is the first time that R&D in the field of ATM has been organised in this way. Of course, not all the solutions we develop will ultimately prove to be interesting. In particular, business cases will have to be carefully assessed at the end of the Release before any decision can be made on their industrialisation. It is also important to manage expectations – this first SESAR Release is far from addressing the entire SESAR concept, but it is already quite ambitious in the fields that it covers, such as 4D trajectory, remote towers, and DMAN-AMAN integration…
What are the main challenges facing the programme in the second half of 2011?
The delivery of the first SESAR Release is of course one of our The delivery of the first SESAR Release is of course one of our highest priorities. The complexity of the programme in terms of content and interdependencies, means that plans have to be followed quite carefully. We will surely face some difficulties, specially since we will be performing validation as close as possible to the real life environment. In addition to the delivery of the first Release, we have started defining Release 2 based on work performed on the Validation and Verification roadmap. The first Release was mainly bottom-up and we need to progressively implement a more strategic planning approach for the future releases, connected as closely as possible to our members’ technical roadmaps. Careful strategic planning of Release 2 will help us to be aware of any potential risks that could affect progress..
In this context, a number of critical risks have already been identified from a content point of view – such as trajectory management and SWIM – and are mitigated through action plans that are being implemented and that will require significant focus and discipline from the entire programme. The last two years have been extremely intense for all programme participants. We now have to keep the momentum going, and above all maintain participants’ motivation and enthusiasm at being part of the SESAR family. There is still a lot of challenges ahead of us!.
Interview re-printed with the kind permission of the SJU.