Airservices Australia claims that they can save nearly $100 million by not replacing the enroute Secondary Surveillance Radar units.  It is interesting that in the USA the FAA would be able to save at least 10 times as much – having at least 10 times the radar coverage. 

Rather than going to ADS-B, the FAA is currently replacing Secondary Surveillance Radars.  The FAA pioneered ADS-B with the Capstone Project.  A number of years ago, the air traffic controllers’ union insisted that ADS-B ‘paints’ be removed from their screens due to faults.  This was done and at the present time Capstone ADS-B ‘paints’ do not appear on air traffic controllers’ screens in the United States.

I have recently made two trips to the United States specifically looking at ADS-B.  It is interesting that in the United States, the FAA is concentrating on Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning Systems and real time weather information in the cockpit – not ADS-B.

One ADS-B ‘expert’ told me that they were waiting for Australia to go ahead and would see what happened here.  He said, “We are waiting for Australia to lead the way.  We will then make a decision when we see how that goes.”

It should be pointed out that the FAA ADS-B for the low level airspace is on a totally different frequency to that being installed in Australia.  That means it is totally non-compatible. 

The reason the FAA has gone to a different system (called UAT - Universal Access Transceiver) is that it allows real time graphic weather information, NOTAMS (flight information service) and even graphic depictions of airspace boundaries to be shown on the ADS-B screen in the aircraft. 

Yes, it will cost the FAA more, but they can see that they are actually doing something for safety - that is, working to reduce weather related accidents.

The Australian system that Airservices is installing does not have the capacity for graphical weather information.  Also, by not being compatible with the USA, equipment designed for US aircraft (over 300,000 of them) will not be usable in Australia.

Many years ago Qantas was being forced by the Government to buy the Comet aircraft.  Fortunately the management at the time said that they wanted to be more conservative and went for the Boeing 707 - that was a sensible decision. 

We should do the same with ADS-B - be conservative and not jump into a decision with an inferior, unique product.