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The next generation of air traffic management systems require a major shift in the technologies and capabilities required for air traffic control. The modernisation programmes under development embrace 4D trajectory concepts, airborne self separation tools, and datalink communications, all of which are some way away from today's ground-based navigation and surveillance infrastructure.

While the industry is striving to meet these new targets, it must at the same time deliver safe, expandable air traffic services today, and adhere to a technical roadmap that will lead to the future Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. Thales Air Systems is responding with a  series of developments and new concepts that involve customers and partners, across different sectors of the business. The company is addressing the goals of Sesar and NextGen - the modernisation programmes underway in Europe and the US - in manageable steps that allow early introduction of some of the new concepts. These form part of a technical roadmap that ultimately leads to a future (airspace structure) ATM system implementation sometime after 2015.

Surveillance solutions
The basis of Thales' solution is the mature, proven, Eurocat air traffic control system. Installed in more than 260 control centres worldwide, Eurocat is a modular system used to control traffic in continental en route, terminal approach, transcontinental and oceanic airspace. More than 100 flight information regions are controlled by Eurocat in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Eurocat is built on a common base that supports a multitude of different functions. For example, the Eurocat surveillance system is able to support many different data sources, and provides the user with a single, combined, surveillance display. Regardless of origin, data from  conventional radar, flight plan tracks, Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B), or Mode S, can be displayed according to user requirements.
By offering this data fusion capability, Eurocat allows the customer to adopt any surveillance policy, and to scale the system accordingly. The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System (TAAATS) supplied by Thales to Airservices is the first major operational system to use ADS-B data to produce a track for controllers in areas where radar coverage is not available. Australia expects to complete the deployment of its ADS-B network by the start of 2009, and is considering to extend surveillance to the lower airspace, and possibly to decommission its en route radar infrastructure in the mid-term. "We try to think with the customer on functions they need in time to make them available," explains Benoît Ribadeau Dumas, director ATM Control Centres in Europe. "We build relationships with clients and try to understand what they want."

Thales has an evolutionary product strategy, whereby any upgrade to Eurocat can benefit other users now, and in the future. Ribadeau Dumas predicts Eurocat will be one of the first European systems to include datalink communications as an integral part of the controller display. Datalink is part of the upgrade due delivery to members of the Coopans joint procurement team in Sweden, Denmark and Ireland, in 2010. The controller tools already include route adherence monitoring, cleared level adherence monitoring, short term conflict alert warning and advanced human-machine-interface features. "We try to have one product with many parameters we can change and adapt with each customer".

Controllers are supported by tools ranging from conformance Monitoring, such as Route Adherence Monitoring, cleared level monitoring, Holding Area Monitoring, but also Safety Nets such as Minimum Safe Altitude Warning, Area Probe Warning and Short Term Conflict Alert together with Conflict Prediction Capability with restricted airspace (Segregated Area Probe) or traffic (Medium Term Conflict Detection). Thales is addressing global requirements with this approach. "We see increasingly product has less to do with geography, and more to do with traffic density and complexity. Singapore and Shanghai face the same issues as Paris and Amsterdam. Thales is able to offer one product for high density areas, and another for countries with less traffic," says Ribadeau Dumas. Both products offer the same quality of safety and service, but with the appropriate set of functionalities. In Taiwan, Thales is installing Eurocat for en route and approach control, and several tower positions, in addition to aeronautical information and communications systems. The delivery includes the latest Eurocat software incorporating integrated functions to improve air traffic flow and reduce flight congestion. The system includes multi-sensor tracking, multilateration, air traffic flow management, air ground data link as well as the latest in safety net alerts and warnings. The system benefits from continual product enhancement by the software supplier, Thales Australia. Meanwhile members of the Coopans team are looking for more shared system development. They anticipate lower overall system cost (LCC), estimated to reach 30 per cent over the life cycle cost of the programme according to an independent study. Savings have aroused the interest of new members, with other European users looking at joining in time to benefit from the next common system upgrade in 2012.

This agreement represents the best way of achieving commonality and interoperability of systems, risk reduction and economies of scale in the future ATM market. Thales is encouraging other customer groups to join the Coopans group or to replicate the model in other areas.