Ever since air traffic control was first invented, the idea that the organizations providing air traffic services must own and operate most of the facilities (communications, surveillance and so on) they require was part and parcel of their concept of existence. Air navigation service providers the world over were convinced, with some justification, that only by owning and operating their own radar stations would they be able to achieve the reliability expected of them.
Of course the rest of the world had in the meantime moved towards a service oriented model, where organizations leave the purchase and operation of expensive hardware to specialized outfits and they buy the required services from them, in most cases resulting in substantial cost savings.
In the air traffic management context the first cracks in the “own and operate” paradigm came when the complexity and requirements of communications reached a point where it was impossible to keep everything in ANSP hands. Telephone lines have always been the premise of the local postal authorities but with the ever increasing need for data communications added, the possibility to offer services was also opened up to private providers. It was soon evident that the quality of service required in air traffic management can be provided by communications companies serving also other industries. One of the obvious additional benefits of this outsourcing was of course that new communications technologies developed in non-aviation fields became automatically available also for aviation applications.
Surveillance, however, has lagged behind, apparently immune to the changes in the world. This is not surprising if we consider that the business of establishing the position of aircraft in flight (the main business of surveillance) is not a very reusable type of activity. Other than air traffic controllers, few people are interested in the information generated and hence no parallel industry has grown up to which ANSPs could outsource surveillance, even if they had a mind to do so.
But things are changing. The time for expensive and troublesome radars is fast coming to an end. This is true even if some ANSPs have just invested a fortune in new radars or are about to do so…
The new technology that is sounding the death-knell of radar is called Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast or ADS-B. Aircraft continuously broadcast their GPS-derived position and other data useful for controllers and receivers on the ground, and in the not too distant future on low-Earth orbit satellites, pick up the signals and route them to wherever they are needed. Although not yet generally available, but some aircraft are also able to receive the broadcast information giving the pilots hitherto unheard-of situational awareness and even the ability to provide their own separation.
ADS-B antennas and receivers are small and easily placed anywhere. The total price of an ADS-B infrastructure is a fraction of what traditional radars cost even if we consider that for proper coverage a multitude of ADS-B sites are required. It will not come as a surprise that an ADS-B environment involves some clever networking also.
ADS-B pioneers in the world are Australia, Canada and of course the US. The change from initially only radar to and ADS-B/radar combination and eventually to an ADS-B only setup is of course a great opportunity for ANSPs to review whether it is cost-effective and indeed, required to keep the ADS-B system in their own hands. In any case, the networking part of even the old radars was probably outsourced already but going from a few own radar sites to scores of ADS-B sites may not be a sensible option any more.
In the United States the FAA thought it was not sensible at all. The ADS-B infrastructure being built there will be provided by ITT Exelis and the FAA will pay a fee for the service. This kind of efficient arrangement is unlikely to surface in Europe where ATM fragmentation and the different fiefdoms tend to push things in the opposite direction.
However, the ultimate in rental surveillance is coming from a cooperative effort between Nav Canada and Iridium Communications. “Iridium Next” is a planned constellation of 66 satellites, each of which will carry ADS-B receivers. The service is dubbed “Aireon” and it is meant to supplement existing ground-based ADS-B systems and to provide service in parts of the world where it is not possible to site surveillance equipment at all.
“Aireon” will never match the capacity of a ground-based system and hence it is not suitable for high traffic density areas. On the other hand, as a second layer of surveillance there to step in if ground-based ADS-B falls out in a limited area, it will be suitable to replace the radars now still planned to be kept to provide two layers of surveillance. At the same time, coverage of the North-Atlantic, the polar regions and the Pacific Ocean can potentially bring benefits that amount to billions of dollars in savings for the airspace users.
Of course, like in every new development, there are issues to consider as well. Aireon will be in a monopoly position and it is not likely that any competition will surface any time soon. This means that while the potential savings will probably be realized, these may not be as big as they could be for the airspace users in a more competitive environment. Some concern exists also because of the lack of consistent global standards for ADS-B. Clearly, there is work to be done.
Whichever way we look at this, the Aireon initiative is a great opportunity for the airspace users, the ANSPs concerned and Iridium to get together and create an environment where global surveillance services can finally be rented as needed and in which hopefully we can also wave good-bye to radars at least for civilian use. With full operations planned for 2018, there is still time to sort things out.
One can only hope that the industry will look into this in a spirit of finding ways to do it rather than searching for excuses for not doing it.