EMMA KELLY / PERTH
Airservices to issue tenders for deployment which will be most extensive to date
Airservices Australia's board has approved a project to install automatic dependent-surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) ground stations throughout the country in what will be the most extensive deployment of the technology to date.
The Australian air traffic service provider proposed earlier this year an ADS-B upper airspace programme that would involve the installation of 20 ADS-B ground stations throughout Australia. Currently radar coverage is only provided on the eastern and south eastern seaboards and over Darwin in the north and Perth in the west, with the rest of the country subject to procedural control services. The ADS-B ground stations with the radar network would provide almost nationwide surveillance capability above flight level 300 (30,000ft/9,150m), says Airservices.
Airservices was due to issue tenders for the programme last week, calling for the ground stations to be operational by the end of 2005.
Position and altitude data from ADS-B-equipped aircraft will be automatically transmitted by the ground stations to Airservices' control centres in Brisbane and Melbourne, where the data will be integrated with the Thales-based Australian Advanced Air Traffic System (TAAATS).
Airservices already has one ADS-B ground station, supplied by Sensis, installed near Bundaberg in Queensland as part of a trial involving regional and general aviation aircraft and helicopters.
The service provider says that ADS-B can provide radar-like surveillance throughout the country at a tenth of the cost of radar coverage. Reduced separation standards with ADS-B will allow more aircraft to fly at optimum levels, reducing operating costs and emissions.
Airservices sought operator feedback earlier this year. Airlines support it, but would require early returns on investment and priority in the air traffic control system.
The service provider says ADS-B-equipped aircraft will receive operational priority. It expects many airlines to implement ADS-B when they install Mode S Enhanced and Elementary surveillance capabilities, required in Europe by mid-2005.
Source: Flight International