Federal Aviation Admininistration And Automatic Dependent Surveillance-broadcast (adsb)

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
Comment this article

The main component in FAA’s NextGen modernization initiative is the overhaul of radar surveillance. It is aiming at achieving this through the deployment of ADSB. The federal aviation administration has started on the ADSB implementation programme. This implementation is being done on the national airspace system. The main reason why FAA is doing this is so as to expand the current infrastructure in the United States. The function that FAA plays is in the management of the ADSB radio station deployment, surveillance from the radio stations deployment and managing the avionics standards. The radio stations surveillance are being integrated into the current air traffic control system of FAA. In 2007, FAA issued a notice of proposed rule making that aimed at asking for comments from the public on the necessary avionics for implementation of ADSB in the national airspace system. The FAA had proposed that all aircrafts should equip their aircrafts with avionics on the basis of the airspace in which they planned to operate in. the final ruling on this is expected in mid 2010. This ruling aims at mandating the implementation of ADSB ...
... avionics in all air spaces by the year 2020. FAA plans to complete national coverage by the year 2013.

FAA contracted ITT Corporation in August 2007 to be the prime contractor involved in the deployment of ADSB radio infrastructure. The terms of the contract between FAA and ITT Corporation were that the system should be in place and ready for commissioning by the year 2010. The contract also required that ITT Corporation should put enough stations by the year 2013 to ensure that there will be ADSB coverage in all areas that have radar.

The installation of ADSB started in South Florida where 11 ground stations have been installed. This installation started in December 2008 and the go ahead was given by Robert Sturgell who was the acting FAA administrator. This installation is the first to be commissioned in the United States of America. This service is also being installed in Louisville, KY with an aim of benefiting controllers and pilots. FAA has targeted other key areas for the installation in preparation for national commissioning which is to be held in September 2010. The FAA chose Louisville as the key site because UPS equipped its aircrafts voluntarily with ADSB capable avionics.

ADSB was taken to the Gulf of Mexico by FAA in December 17 and it is available at Houston Center. The reason why this was done was after FAA signed a Memorandum of Agreement with HAI (Helicopter Association International), helicopter operators and oil platform companies. From this agreement, FAA is gaining in terms of getting valuable space, telecommunications and power from the oil platforms to the shore and this is being used for the ADSB ground stations installed by FAA, weather stations and radio communications stations (FAA, 2010). Because the ATC radar coverage is not yet complete, FAA is locating ABSB receivers on the oil rigs and this is being use to relay information that has been received from the aircrafts back to the Houston Control center. The information is only received from aircrafts which have been equipped ADSB. This process is being used to improve and expand on the surveillance coverage (New York Times, 2009).

The installation and deployment of ADSB is divided into three FAA segments each with a stated timeline. The ground segment implementation began in 2009 and is expected to be completed in 2013.FAA segment 1 (2006-2009) involved deployment and voluntary equipage of ADBS avionics. The pockets of development exploited on the deployment of equipment in the areas that provided proof of concept for integration. This proof of concept was used for integration to the ATC automation systems which had already been deployed in the NAS (New York Times, 2009). This development was done at the Federal Aviation Administration technical center which is situated at Egg Harbor in New Jersey.
FAA segment 2 (2010-2014) aims at deploying ADSB ground stations through out NAS. In this segment, there is an in service decision that will occur in the 2012-2013 time frame and complete deployment is aimed to be achieved by the year 2013-2014.

FAA segment 3 (2015-2020) entails the equipage of ADSB based on the benefits as they are perceived by the user. The main goal of this segment is to provide increased situational awareness and efficiency of ADSB deployment. But there is an increased concern by the FAA national program about the insecure nature and the integrity of ADSB transmissions.

The deployment of ADSB is mandatory. The FAA administrator, Marion Blakey expects that there will be a national wide deployment of ADSB data links in all commercial and general aviation aircrafts by the year 2014. This is in line with the proposed FAA’s national airspace system automation and modernization plans. Blakey was quoted saying that Deployment of ADSB was the backbone of a more and advanced automated system and that without its deployment, there won’t be a next generation system. She stressed that the deployment was not something voluntary but that it will have to be mandatory in the future. FAA will look into the requirements of equipping all aircrafts with ADSB in June when it holds its Joint Resources Council meeting. The first segment of FAA nationwide ADSB deployment initiative is expected to start this year (Singleton, 2006). The final rule that will mandate ADSB equipage is expected to be issued by FAA in April 2010. This mandate will require equipage of ADSB in all airspaces and it will become effective in January 1, 2020.

FAA has liked the idea of ADSB and that is why they have embraced it. In this regard, the officials at FAA requested 80 million dollars in 2007 to fund the first segment of deployment. They are now conducting a cost projection analysis of the second phase which they target to be completed by the end of this year. The FAA administrator says that this programme is expected to operate until 2035 (Singleton, 2006). FAA is aggressive in achieving its targets. It therefore wants to put ADSB in all airports to achieve its long term targets and goals.

The author is associated with

The author is senior writer at https://www.allacademicanswers.com