ADS-B TO REPLACE RADAR

Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 01:28 PM ET

Verified

Radar needs grew somewhat haphazardly. Consequently, it's not uncommon for some areas to have multiple radars that largely overlap. For example, the San Francisco Bay area has Center, plus San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose terminals, plus a couple military installations. Obviously, there are candidates for divestiture, but care must be taken to ensure 100 percent coverage remains.

Key Takeaways:

The FAA plans to divest approximately 100 secondary radar systems by 2035, aiming to save $400 million by leveraging ADS-B integration within the National Airspace System.
Initial optimistic projections for radar divestiture have been significantly reduced (e.g., from 100+ to around 7-18) after detailed safety and operational analyses by stakeholders like NATCA, highlighting the process's complexity and site-specific nature.
The radar divestiture process is rigorously safety-focused, involving in-depth engineering studies, Safety Risk Management, and active participation from Air Traffic Control (ATC) and unions at all levels to ensure operational integrity, address local needs, and adapt to evolving surveillance technologies and spectrum requirements.

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Capstone, the first large-scale ADSB prototype, was deployed in Alaska in 1999 because Alaska had (and still has) the highest of any state’s aviation accident rate. Despite this challenging environment, by 2006, Capstoneequipped aircraft demonstrated a 47 per cent decline in accident rate compared to non-equipped aircraft in southwest Alaska.

That same year, the FAA integrated Capstone into the national ADS-B program. In 2007, the FAA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for ADSB Out. After discussion and review, the FAA issued its Final Rule in 2010.