Era Selected for ADS-B in Jamaica

The system will be used by the JCAA for extensive operational testing, prior to an eventual nationwide wide area multilateration and ADS-B deployment. With the countrys current radars becoming increasingly more expensive to operate and maintain, the JCAA conducted studies on replacement technologies and determined that next generation multilateration and ADS-B technologies would offer cost advantages and performance benefits. Air navigation service providers (ANSPs) worldwide are replacing their older and costly radar-based surveillance systems with multilateration or ADS-B technologies that have proved to be more accurate, and provide better coverage and increased reliability, while meeting the applicable International Civil Aviation Organization standards, said Eras director of the Americas region, Bernard Asare. We are committed to helping Jamaica and the Caribbean States transition to more affordable surveillance systems to meet their future air traffic management needs. ADS-B is a critical component of any future next generation air traffic management system. Aircraft equipped with ADS-B avionics constantly and automatically transmit information such as speed, altitude, identification and direction of flight to other ADS-B aircraft, as well as to air traffic control (ATC) automation systems, by way of ground stations such as MSSsm by Era. Because ADS-B works off a network of ground stations, the technology lends itself well to cross-border surveillance participation. MSS provides both ADS-B and multilateration technology in a single ground station, providing ANSPs with the surveillance needed for aircraft with older technologies (e.g., legacy Mode A and Mode C transponders) and those with more modern ADS-B (e.g., Mode S Extended Squitter) avionics. The JCAA recognizes that Eras certified ADS-B and multilateration surveillance technologies are critical to reducing the operational and maintenance costs of our infrastructure, while dramatically improving operational safety and efficiency in the Jamaican flight information region, said Col. Oscar Derby, director general of the JCAA. States with limited resources should strongly consider embracing ADS-B and multilateration technologies as core components of their surveillance modernization FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE plans in the short term because of the quantum leap in surveillance accuracy and operational safety that these will bring to their organizations. A vast number of ANSPs in Europe and Asia Pacific have shown that these technologies are mature, have been certified to provide ATC separation services and have proved to be of higher performance than traditional secondary surveillance radars.