ADS-B in the Gulf

The first manifestation of the FAA's much-trumpeted Next Generation Air Transportation System is likely to see daylight in the Gulf of Mexico, and all "NextGen" aviation users plying airspace over the Gulf will have the rotary-wing community to thank for it.

NextGen, of course, is the long-awaited modernization of the FAA's air traffic control infrastructure that we described in the November 2007 issue ("ADS-B's Impact on Business Aviation," page 68). Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast technology is the keystone of the system and sometime in the next two decades will replace the FAA's primary and secondary surveillance radar network (except for a small number of radars retained as emergency backups).

Ultimately, 795 ADS-B ground stations are planned for installation throughout the contiguous United States, Hawaii, Alaska and on drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico by NextGen prime contract winner ITT, which will also operate and maintain the system along with subcontractor AT&T. A requirement in the contract is for the telecommunications team to have critical portions of the network -- i.e., in high traffic-density areas and the Gulf -- online and operating by 2010, with full national coverage completed three years later. Operators will then have until 2020 to equip their aircraft with ADS-B avionics while the FAA operates dual ADS-B and radar surveillance systems.