A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/820602
ADS - B: As of March 31, 2017, the number of Rule Compliant ADS - B Out in the U . S . reached 27,431. ADS - B In equipped aircraft reached 24,548. Current equipage levels are falling short of the projected numbers needed to reach the Jan 1, 2020 deadline to equip with ADS - B. Avionics I nstallation capacity NAS wide could also be exceeded t he longer users wait to equip. So far, the Agency has been cl ear that the deadline is firm. Time will tell, as the deadline looms closer. Most, if not all, a ir c arriers have provided the Agency with a plan to meet the deadline. The military, as previously released in the press, expects to be unable to meet this deadline for several versions of the ir fighter and older aircraft. They are working with the Agency on a compromise that requires DOD rada r availability at key sites to be identified. GA equipage is a harder question and being carried as a h igh risk by the SBS Program Office. Increased avionics availability and competition among manufacturers continues to bring the overall cost for GA us ers down. In addition, the Agency has initiated another rebate program and it is showing some interest, but not as high as expected. The SBS PO very rough estimate of avionics installation capacity nationwid e is 50,000 aircraft per year. The rough estim ate of all NAS aircraft that need to equip is 160,000. Users that wait too close to 2020 may find that the capacity for insta llation falls short of demand. Facilities may see these GA ADS - B operators flying more check flights as they attempt to validate their installations and claim the rebate. An issue not screened by automation systems but an important assumption for future ADS - B dependent applications is the br oadcast call sign of the user. ADS - B sends this information to automation systems for compa rison to the filed call sign. When a mismatch occurs a Call Sign Mismatch (CSMM) a lert can be generated. The number of CSMM conditions present across NAS wide has been such that it is unreasonable to r ecommend enabling these alerts. ERAM and MEARTS have already done so. STARS alerts are only present when the ADS - B CHI is enabled (not a requirement), and the SBS Article 114 work group has agreed to disable the alerts co mpletely as soon as practical. The Agency continues to work on reducing the numbers. ADS - B IOCs have been completed at all En Route (ERAM and MEARTS) facilities. All but one ERAM site has promoted ADS - B t o the top of their sort cells. ZMA intends to promote ADS - B on June 22, 2017. 99 of 155 Terminal sites have reached their ADS - B IOC an d 95 are operating on Fusion. The majority of the remaining Terminal sites are ARTS 2E sites awaiting an upgrade to the ELITE (STARS) build. The Terminal ADS - B/Fusion tran sition proceeds in this order: Kickoff meeting, ADS - B Flight Inspection, ADS - B IOC , Fusion Operational Suitability Demonstratio n (OSD) , and Fusion Operations. The most recent and upcoming Terminal events: Fort Wayne (FWA) OSD 4/4/17 Fort Wayne (FWA) Fusion Operations 4/5/17 Huntsville (HSV) Fusion Operations 4/5/17