DFS exercises contractual option for extension of ERA wide area ADS-B system of German airspace monitoring

ERA (a member of OMNIPOL Group) announces that DFS recently exercised an option from the previous ADS-B contract to extend ADS-B coverage of German airspace. Based on the contract’s specifications, ERA will deliver additional ADS-B ground stations to the already existing MSS-5 (Multi-sensor Surveillance System) from ERA. The customer, DFS, the German ANSP, has put its trust in ERA thanks to the successful previous phase of an ongoing project and dozens of deliveries of ERA surveillance systems to German airports. 

ERA had previously delivered the network of ADS-B ground stations (GS) of the MSS-5 system in 2024 to monitor almost the entire airspace of the Federal Republic of Germany and thus increase the safety of their congested air traffic routes. Part of the net was installed in southern Germany (from the French border in the west to the Upper Palatine Forest in the east near the Czech border), the rest is located in the eastern part of Germany (from Leipzig up to Rügen island in the north). One stand-alone ADS-B station was placed in the DFS control centre in Langen.

The current phase of the project is focused on the Munich region. “We are going to build a validation environment in which we will prove that ADS-B can be used safely for 3NM separation,” explained DFS expert Maximilian Menk. 

ERA itself has long been respected in Germany as a supplier of multilateration solutions. There are several ERA MLAT surface systems functioning at German airports in Munich, Hamburg, Leipzig, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Cologne and Berlin.

On the MSS-5 system by ERA

MSS-5 is the fifth generation of the Multi-sensor Surveillance System (MSS) tailored for Air Traffic Management combining multilateration and ADS-B technologies (solo ADS-B in this project). The system provides accurate real-time localization, tracking and identification of all objects equipped with a transponder: on the airport surface, in TMA and en-route. MSS-5 answers the five main current challenges of Air Traffic Surveillances: traffic density, deployability, time synchronization, safety and security.

On ADS-B technology
Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology is one of the key elements of contemporary ATM systems globally. The ADS-B system represents a product derivate of MSS-5. ERA provides both, a stand-alone ADS-B station as well as a smart network of ADS-B stations with a single output. ADS-B is also available as an option for any of the ERA multilateration solutions.