Integrated ATM

In recognition of the wider range of harmonisation benefits possible, Airservices and the RAAF formed a joint steering group, AC-MAC (the Australian Civil-Military Air Traffic Management Committee). Initiatives tackled by AC-MAC to date have included the long-term alignment of systems, operations, procedures, infrastructure, capability planning, and training. Early attempts at collaboration had limited success, highlighting the differences in customer focus, operational and financial systems. Recent initiatives, prompted by the need to procure a new ATM system, have gained greater momentum and are contributing to a greater level of harmonisation between Airservices and Defence.

As an example of the different systems in operation, Airservices ATM system (TAAATS), supplied by Thales, has been operational since 1998. The Airservices system comprises two air traffic control centres, located at Brisbane and Melbourne, each responsible for approximately half the airspace across continental Australia. These air traffic control centres are built on independent processing systems, providing terminal control radar and tower services at all major cities. TAAATS incorporates the data processing automation, controller consoles, simulators, communications systems and facilities associated with providing radar services. Other air traffic management systems, such as radar sensors and new automation systems for control towers, are procured and managed under separate supplier contracts.

Defence operates a network of control towers and approach radar locations, although radar approach services for Richmond, Pearce and Edinburgh are provided from Airservices facilities. RAAF’s ATM system – ADATS – incorporates radar sensors (fixed and deployable), software and display systems, communications systems and radar simulators for the school of air traffic control and military approach units. Supplied by Raytheon, ADATS was installed into the Defence control towers and radar approach units, with the first location becoming operational in 2000.

ATM systems operated by both organisations are aging. Hardware items are becoming increasingly difficult to support as they grow old, and are consequently expensive to maintain. The software architecture in both systems is complex and largely proprietary, and because of this, software enhancements to help cater for new operational requirements are sometimes difficult to incorporate.

The two organisations have adopted different approaches to their system evolution. Airservices has progressively introduced new functionality into TAAATS, such as advanced multi-radar tracking and conflict detection and alerting. If ‘off the shelf’ solutions were not available from the original equipment manufacturer, the upgrade path became complex, time-consuming and expensive to introduce into the operational environment. Defence adopted a strategy of upgrading some core components to ADATS, but the overall system has struggled to keep pace with recent developments in ATM.

A new harmonised Australian ATM system will be influenced by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) initiatives in the development of Aviation System Block Upgrades (ASBU). These block upgrades are a programmatic framework consisting of flexible and scalable building blocks that can be introduced into a region depending on the need and level of readiness, while recognising that not all modules are required in all airspaces. The block upgrade modules are largely based on the capabilities being developed for the United States’ Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), and Europe’s Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) programme.

ICAO is seeking to achieve objectives of global interoperability and harmonisation, with block upgrades organised into five-year increments starting in 2013 and extending through to 2028 and beyond. Future ATM systems will need to cater for new operational concepts, technologies and procedures to meet these objectives. Development of trajectory management will enable aircraft to define their route, height, speed and time of flight (termed a 4D trajectory) for as far as possible. A crucial enabler for flexible air routes is providing civil aircraft access to military airspace when not required for defence purposes. This requires a high level of cooperation and coordination between civil and military air traffic control organisations. A common ATM platform reduces the coordination complexity in the tactical exchange of civil and military airspace to meet the flightpath requirements of an aircraft.

To support anticipated developments and capacity demands, airspace design philosophy will change involving flexibility and modularity of airspace volumes to better manage changing demand. Terminal airspace design around major airports will incorporate fixed routes that cater for aircraft of varying capability and characteristics, increasingly based upon satellite technology. Approach and departure routes will become more efficient due to the increased accuracy of navigation systems.

To be able to handle the anticipated growth in traffic, initiatives are needed to increase the number of aircraft able to be managed by an air traffic controller. This requires evolution of automated functions to support controllers, as well as the application of air traffic separation to become more strategic, being planned in advance of the flight. Initiatives will attempt to minimise in-air holding and ground queues. It will involve air traffic services providers, airports and aircraft operators working together to negotiate and plan aircraft movements. Some responsibility for separation will transfer to the pilot, enabled by ADS-B technology, providing situation awareness to the cockpit.

Sophisticated information management is needed to integrate the ATM data from all organisations involved in the operational system. These organisations comprising airports, airlines, air traffic service providers and aircraft are considered to be nodes that provide and receive system information. Modern ATM systems will need to integrate with the operational systems operated by these various organisations. In many ways, the ATM system to be implemented by Airservices and Defence will be the foundation upon which other aviation organisations involved in the ATM system can begin initiatives to improve efficiency.

Airservices and Defence need to manage a process of periodic system enhancements post-commissioning to introduce new capabilities as they become available and are required for efficient management of airspace. From the Australian perspective, the maturing ASBU framework will provide a globally-standardised reference for planning the functionality and future upgrades of air and ground systems.

Nick King, General Manager Air Traffic Control Future Systems, Airservices, explains: “The ASBU initiative will provide Airspace Users, ANSPs, Suppliers and Regulators with a development roadmap that will encourage alignment of effort and greater certainty about options to meet future demands.”

The Australian aviation industry has traditionally been an early adopter of new systems (like FANS-1/A, GBAS and ADS-B) and a globally-aligned roadmap removes some of the risk of being at the leading edge. ASBU is likely to mean that there is greater certainty about the systems that will be developed globally and when they will be deployed.

“We want to be in a position to take advantage of the considerable development efforts going on in Europe and the US, and ensure that they meet the needs in our region into the future”, says King.
Standardisation also reduces development risk for air and ground system suppliers, as well as costs to industry. Airservices, Defence and other agencies will continue to pay close attention to the development of the ASBUs to ensure they achieve their full potential.

In support of ICAO block upgrades, Airservices and Defence may consider some form of ‘open’ system capability, whereby the core functionality will be open to interface with ‘best of breed’ solutions from different manufacturers over its life.

Each organisation has a different operational focus and culture. Airservices provides services to a multitude of customers within Australia. It is a risk-averse organisation that sets demanding standards for its suppliers when commissioning new systems, which can increase the time, effort and cost associated with project implementation. The RAAF has a concentration on a single customer that requires a highly customised service. While having local service requirements, the RAAF must also meet deployment obligations into war and disaster zones.

For both organisations, maintaining secure firewalls and minimising the risk of cyberthreats are important requirements for any ATM system. In recent months Defence has sought industry expertise through the RPDE defence/industry framework to help prepare the security design for the system architecture. Defence will likely be considering some security-related options in the approach to the market, aside from the core ATM capability being sought.

In previous acquisitions, Airservices and Defence have favoured contracts with suppliers that cover system acquisition plus an extensive support period. However, due to the complexity, time, cost and organisational upheaval associated with the acquisition and transition to a new ATM system, a trend is emerging for air traffic service providers around the world to enter into long-term strategic relationships with suppliers. In these relationships, software is updated in accordance with a planned development path, and hardware is replaced and upgraded periodically. It is possible that this framework will be adopted by Airservices and Defence at some time during the support period of the proposed ATM system.

An Operating Level Agreement (OLA) signed by Airservices and Defence in July formalised their association for the acquisition and support of a joint ATM system. The agreement provides definition to the procurement process and the contractual framework for the joint civil-military ATM system.

Nick King describes the scope of the OLA: “The OLA provides clear guidance on how Defence and Airservices will work together in the development of the ATM system replacement program. Both organisations will approach the market through a single RFT that seeks to deliver a single acquisition contract and single support contract to meet the requirements of both Airservices and Defence.”

Defence and Airservices have prepared a common operational concept for civil and military ATM operations in 2018 (ASBU Block 1 commencement) and beyond. This operational concept was developed with input from civil and military user groups to gain agreement. It defines how the civil and military system components would work as one ‘system of systems’ to deliver services. The specification for the system itself is derived from the operational concept, and the joint team has spent considerable effort undertaking systems engineering to ensure requirements traceability between the concept and the resulting specification.

Engagement with industry suppliers to develop the requirements has occurred in three phases: a Request For Information in mid 2010, consultation with industry about the draft Functional and Performance Specification in late 2011 and supplier briefings at the ATC Global symposium during March 2012.

“The engagement with industry, user groups, ICAO and a variety of other stakeholders has enabled us to gain confidence that our specification is realistic and that there is sufficient capability among organisations to meet these requirements,” says Nick King. He adds: “On-going system development post commissioning is important. We used ATC Global as an opportunity for suppliers to present their ATM system development roadmaps. It provided an understanding of what is available now and what functionality enhancements are in development for the future.”

The type of organisation likely to be awarded the prime contract will be one that both Airservices and Defence believe they can work alongside over the long term. The vendors will need a comprehensive offering to meet existing requirements but also have a clear roadmap detailing when enhancements will be incorporated into their core ATM system.

Both OEMs and large-scale systems integrators may meet the requirements of a prime contractor. Previously the nature of ATM systems development, involving the commissioning and development of a largely proprietary system, favoured an OEM as prime. A new system involving core functionality provided by a large OEM, with best of breed functionality provided from other suppliers, points to a much greater reliance on system integration and program management capabilities.

Defence and Airservices seem confident in the work that has been completed, focus within both organisations, ability to work cohesively together and the capabilities of the staff members involved. Both Airservices and Defence have key domain experts from the earlier TAAATS and ADATS projects involved in the future ATM system project, yet some will likely retire from the organisations before system acquisition has been completed. Looking ahead, both organisations have recognised a need to identify and develop staff members with the necessary skills and capabilities to deliver the project into the future.

Recent events suggest that the intended system commissioning date, presently scheduled for 2018 to 2020, could be delayed. In recent months, Airservices announced the appointment of Margaret Staib as the new Chief Executive Officer. Ms Staib has extensive military experience in aviation, logistics and procurement management. Her appointment seems to have been made with the complex governance demands of this joint program firmly in mind. This follows the appointment of a new chair in June, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, along with four new Board members. It would be expected that the new CEO will want to signoff on significant business issues associated with this most important strategic decision prior to the release of tender documentation.

Defence and Airservices have most recently advised that the RFT is scheduled to be released in 2013. A further update on progress will be presented to industry during December, at which time current versions of the operational concept document and function and performance specification for the future system will be released. Other items to be completed before RFT release would include the finalisation of the statements of work, specification details, and contract terms. In view of this announcement and the assimilation of the new CEO, it would seem that an RFT release date around Q2, 2013 is likely.