NATCA Bookshelf

A D S - B 6 NextGen Now | Summer 2015 AUTOMATIC DEPENDENT SURVEILLANCE BROADCAST Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) Out equipage expanded to 12,613 units as of May 31, 2015. Groups such as the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) have made recent endorsements to help spark this growth, which totaled seven percent in May and continues to follow expectations. General aviation (GA) aircraft make up 10,902 of the total equipped. The Equip 2020 group has been quite successful in identifying and overcoming obstacles to early equipage for all users: GA, commercial, and corporate. Military equipage remains a question mark with the potential that it will follow a similar pattern and wait until the deadline approaches, as was the case for equipping for Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum. Following Terminal Automation Modernization and Replacement (TAMR) Elite Initial Operational Capability (IOC) successes, Surveillance Broadcast Services (SBS) has begun introducing Elite sites to ADS-B and Fusion. Allentown, Pa., Austin, Texas, and Billings, Mont., are the first Elite sites being worked. The SBS Article 48 workgroup met with NATCA and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) representatives of New Orleans Approach (MSY) in May to hear about the benefits derived from ADS-B and Fusion. Due to MSY's partnership with a number of Gulf of Mexico helicopter operators and Houston Center (ZHU), Gulf of Mexico airspace has a high percentage of ADS-B aircraft. This foreshadows what other facilities could experience as the 2020 deadline to equip with ADS-B approaches. MSY has seen a definitive improvement in overall surveillance, and has moved from non-radar procedures to radar procedures at the home base of one operator in Houma, La. Fusion has also lent itself well to operations. That has allowed MSY to make new choices in sector configurations and staffing. En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) sites continue to reconfigure allowing full use of ADS-B from the surface and above. All sites reached ADS-B IOC quite some time ago, but in a restricted mode that did not allow ADS-B to be used without radar reinforcement. A Safety Risk Management (SRM) document signed in Sept. 2014 has permitted ADS-B use without this restriction. All ERAM sites are expected to have this enhanced capability by the end of Sept. 2015. Fusion is widely used in Common Automated Radar Terminal Systems (CARTS) and Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS), and controllers at en route facilities are now receiving an introduction to this

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