EUROCONTROL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF PCP IR AF1 ON MILITARY OPERATIONS

Transcription

1 EUROCONTROL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF PCP IR AF1 ON MILITARY OPERATIONS A Overarchig Isight Iformatio Paper - Editio 15 Jauary 2016

2 We help our Member States ru safe, efficiet ad evirometally-friedly air traffic operatios throughout the Europea regio. We work together with our parters to deliver a Sigle Europea Sky that will help overcome the safety, capacity ad performace challeges facig Europea aviatio i the 21st cetury.

3 ABSTRACT The Europea Commissio adopted Regulatio (EU) 716/2014, madatig the implemetatio of six air traffic maagemet (ATM) fuctioalities (AF). This costitutes the first Commo Project, referred to as the Pilot Commo Project (PCP). The first ATM fuctioality advocates the extesio of Arrival Maagemet (AMAN) ad Performace Based Navigatio (PBN) implemetatio i high-desity Termial Maoeuvrig Areas (TMAs). These ehaced airspace structures call for high levels of avigatio performace, which directly affect multiple aviatio stakeholders, icludig military operators that eed to carry out aerial operatios withi those TMAs ad at airports. This paper highlights some aspects relevat to a iitial impact assessmet of the PCP Regulatio AF1 o military operatios coducted as Geeral Air Traffic (GAT) withi those airspace structures ad at airports. Military flights operatig at the airports idetified i the PCP Regulatio are very ofte equipped with Area Navigatio (RNAV) rather tha with Required Navigatio Performace (RNP) capabilities. That meas that RNP implemetatio supportig arrival ad departure procedures will impact o military operatios. I terms of the RNP o Approach (RNP APCH) specificatio, a higher umber of military flights evidece LNAV/VNAV 1 capabilities istead of LPV 2. The impact of the PCP Regulatio AF1 o military operatios takes o particular importace whe military trasport-type aircraft flights trasit through TMAs adjacet to the regulated airports. A sigificat umber of military aircraft operatig as GAT are still o-compliat with the PBN specificatios ad fuctioalities evisaged i the PCP Regulatio. There is a eed to accommodate those military aircraft flyig GAT to eable the sovereigty roles, icludig atioal security ad defece missios that require urestricted access to the airspace. This paper also emphasises the fact that military traffic levels ad equipage status justify military authorities i cosiderig adequate levels of PBN equipage (or systems reutilisatio) to meet the PCP Regulatory requiremets. 1. Itroductio 1.1. The Pilot Commo Project (PCP) Implemetig Rule (IR) (Regulatio (EU) N 716/2014 of 27 Jue) evisages ATM improvemets that are aimed at ehacig the performace of the Europea Air Traffic Maagemet Network (EATMN) i the short- to medium-term The first PCP ATM fuctioality (AF1), the so-called Exteded Arrival Maagemet ad Performace Based Navigatio i the high-desity Termial Maoeuvrig Areas, implies the implemetatio of Required Navigatio Performace (RNP) procedures at 25 of Europe s major airports As a direct cosequece, a iitial impact assessmet of the PCP AF1 o military operatios, coducted as Geeral Air Traffic (GAT) i mixed mode eviromet, withi those TMAs/airports, is of the utmost importace. This assessmet was developed to provide guidace for civil ad military decisio-makers whe esurig both civilmilitary iteroperability i relatio to the accommodatio of State aircraft 3 i such TMAs/airports ad e-route airspace associated with the extesio of Arrival Maagemet (AMAN) up to 200 NM. 2. Scope ad Objective 2.1. Arrival maagemet exteded to e-route airspace ad ehaced termial airspace relyig o RNP-based operatios, as stated i the PCP Regulatio, affects the airspace structure of 25 major TMAs/airports i Europe, referred to below as PCP airports The actors affected by the PCP Regulatio are ot oly airport operators ad airlies but also other stakeholders, icludig military aircraft operators I this sese, the PCP Regulatio might make for costraits to military operatios o the basis of safety ad operatioal performace justificatios. 1 LNAV/VNAV Lateral Navigatio/Vertical Navigatio. 2 LPV Localizer Performace with Vertical Guidace. 3 Military, customs ad police but i this documet referred to military aircraft oly. 3

4 2.4. Civil ad Military users iterests should be properly take ito cosideratio whe the deploymet of AF1 requiremets is plaed. A lack of iteroperability would affect the overall performace of the etwork ad, i this particular case, potetially reduce capacity at the PCP airports whe accommodatig o-pbn-capable military aircraft, withi safety limits There is a eed for cost-beeficial eablers or performace-based accommodatio for military aircraft compliace with the PBN specificatios ad fuctioalities required to fly i those TMAs/airports, keepig special hadlig/ exemptios to the very miimum This paper describes a iitial quatitative impact assessmet: idetify which of the PCP airports have collocated military facilities with operatioal use of the airfield; display the level of use of the PCP TMAs/airports by military aircraft ad the available PBN o-board capabilities, i order to statistically evaluate the impact of the PCP Regulatio AF1 o military operatios; support the idetificatio of measures to eable military aircraft to access those TMAs/airports. 3. PCP Regulatio AF The PBN compoet of the PCP AF1 ecompasses the followig measures, which are due to eter ito force by 1 Jauary 2024: RNP 1 SIDs, STARs ad trasitios (with the use of Radius to Fix (RF)); RNP APCH (Lateral Navigatio/Vertical Navigatio - LNAV/VNAV, or Localiser Performace with Vertical Guidace - LPV) The eed for cosistet avioics capabilities ad reversioary capabilities ad procedures is ot detailed i the AF1. I order to reach the icrease i capacity at the PCP TMAs/airports, a good trade-off betwee RNP procedures ad the level of aircraft equipage should be cosidered I this sese, fully RNP-capable military aircraft sigificatly cotribute to the aim of the PCP Regulatio ad those partially equipped or o-pbn compliat should be accommodated o the basis of reversioary optios i order to fulfil their missios The ucertaity related to reversioary optios calls for civil-military coordiatio actios, to esure that military aircraft cotiue to be able to operate at those TMAs ad airports. 4. Impact Assessmet 4.1. Collocated Military Facilities The implemetatio of ew arrival ad departure procedures (SIDs/STARs), as plaed i the PCP Regulatio, could affect military flights scheduled to access the PCP airports or cross the associated TMAs Therefore, it is importat to idetify which of the 25 airports idetified i the PCP regulatio have collocated military facilities. The airports that fall uder these coditios are the followig 4 : Brussels Zavetem, which has the co-located Belgia Air Compoet Melsbroek Base; Oslo Gardermoe, which has the co-located Gardermoe Military Air Statio. Palma de Mallorca So Sa Jua, which is a civil-military airport comprisig the Spaish Air Force So Sa Jua Base. 4 Military, customs ad police but i this documet referred to military aircraft oly. 4

5 I estimatig the impact of the PCP Regulatio AF1 o military operatios, ot oly the above-metioed airports have bee examied i this assessmet, but also all the other PCP airports PCP AF1 also raises the eed for a assessmet to determie the effect of exteded AMAN at air bases ad for secodary airport operatios located withi the TMA ad/or withi the exteded AMAN area Use of PCP airports by military aircraft The impact of ew arrival ad departure procedures o military aircraft flyig as GAT is dictated by the level of PBN o-board equipage ad avioics itegratio as eeded to access PCP airports As a avigatio resource for that purpose, the ew ICAO flight pla stadard itroduced i 2012 (FPL 2012) has cosiderably ehaced the idetificatio of aircraft capabilities required for avigatio. Thus, the ew flight pla iformatio also outlies the level of military aircraft equipage ad capabilities used whe operatig as GAT at PCP TMAs ad airports. This was a good basis to measure the impact of the PCP Regulatio o military operatios, by adoptig a quatitative approach Flight pla iformatio related to military aircraft flights coducted as GAT was used as a basis for this purpose: GAT flight plas i which the letter M (military flight) i Field 8 Type of Flight - was filed; flights whose destiatio was oe of the airports covered by the regulatio; flights carried out i the first six moths of 2015 (from 1 Jauary to 31 Jue) The aalysis of the flight pla iformatio, available i EUROCONTROL, cosiders a three-step approach: firstly, PBN compliace of military aircraft equipage; secodly, level of PBN o-board capabilities; ad thirdly, level of airport use. With regard to the first oe, the aalysis relies o the umber of flights capable ad o-capable of flyig PBN procedures. The umber of military flights provided with at least oe PBN o-board capability was revealed to be actually higher tha those o-pbn-capable: 92% versus 8% respectively, which meas that to a certai level military aircraft (maily trasport types) were already PBN-compliat to a certai degree Nevertheless, it is importat to remember that, i this domai, flight pla iformatio oly reveals the level of o-board capabilities. Therefore, it should be highlighted that eve whe the aircraft is properly equipped, it may ot have approval for coductig PBN operatios due to: specific crew traiig requiremets; lack of kowledge of requiremets ad procedures; difficulties ecoutered durig the operatioal approval process by the competet authorities; difficulties i complyig with techical specificatios (e.g. PBN fuctioalities), ofte traslated ito procedures A overarchig view of the level of PBN o-board capabilities i military aircraft leads to a i-depth uderstadig of the curret level of aircraft equipage i relatio to the PCP Regulatio requiremets. The coclusio draw from the flight pla aalysis is that military flights which have a area avigatio capacity are maily equipped with RNAV rather tha with RNP capabilities (Figure 1). That meas that RNP1 implemetatio i terms of arrival ad departure procedures will have a impact o military operatios. 5

6 Figure 1. Global level of PBN o-board capabilities with regard to military flights I terms of RNP APCH, the figures show a higher amout of military flights capable of meetig LNAV/VNAV requiremets rather tha procedures relyig o LPV. I this domai, the umber of APV 5 -capable military aircraft (LNAV/VNAV or LPV) is rather low (maximum 543 out of 1,906 flights) The third coclusio to be derived from the flight pla aalysis is the level of military flights at each of the PCP airports. I this respect, as variace betwee levels of use is rather high, Figure 2 oly depicts the te most used airports with regard to military flights. Figure 2. Te most used airports as regards military flights. 5 APV Approach with Vertical Guidace (icludes both LNAV/VNAV, relyig o Barometric VNAV, ad LPV, relyig o Space Based Augmetatio Systems (SBAS)). 6

7 4.3. PCP airspace area use by military aircraft PBN is oe of the foudatios for capacity ad flight efficiecy icreases ad therefore AMAN implemetatio, with more impact at TMA level. Cosequetly, o-pbn-capable or lower capability military aircraft could affect the arrival ad departure traffic flows ot oly durig approach ad ladig at the PCP airports, but also whe trasitig through the allocated airspace area (e.g. crossig the TMA to reach aother airspace area or airport) The impact of the PCP Regulatio o military operatios ca also be evaluated by lookig at military flights that make exclusive use of PCP airports airspace areas to carry out their operatios. For assessmet purposes, the followig were selected for aalysis: a subset of PCP airports where there is clearly a TMA ad/or CTR AUA 6 -type airspace grouped with the airport s ICAO code (e.g. Brussels Airport (EBBR) EBBRTMA / EBBRCTR); GAT flight plas, i which the letter M (military flight) i Field 8 Type of Flight - was filed; Flights carried out i the first six moths of 2015 (from 01 Jauary to 31 Jue) I geeral, the level of military operatios whe trasitig through PCP airports airspace areas is more relevat tha whe makig exclusive operatioal use of those airfields (Figure 3). I this sese, the PCP Regulatio s impact o military operatios takes o particular importace i terms of both exteded AMAN ad PBN implemetatio aimig at achievig higher capacity ad flight efficiecy. Figure 3. PCP airspace areas use by military aircraft. 6 AUA ATC Uit Airspace. 7

8 4.4. Impact of the PCP Regulatio AF1 o military aircraft The ambitio of icreasig capacity i order to accommodate all the forecast demad with sufficiet margi will affect, amog others, termial area ad airport capacity. Itesive use of saturated airport capacity will adversely impact o predictability ad delays, which makes the ambitio to icrease capacity that much more challegig This capacity icrease will require ehacemets to traffic sequecig, reduced separatio requiremet, reduced ad more predictable ruway occupacy times ad ehaced maagemet of taxiway throughput for both arrivals ad procedures. As a result, from a system perspective, all the compoets of the ew airspace cocept have to be associated with the ecessary capabilities i order to fulfil those ehacemets, i which the aircraft o-board equipage plays a particular role The PCP Regulatio could be see as oe of the drivers for icrease i safety ad airport capacity, addressig RNP implemetatio at the 25 major airports. The resultig eed for techical eablers capable of flyig RNP procedures as dictated by the regulatio will become oe of the mai drivers to avoid delays at highdesity TMAs Military flights i high-desity TMAs might ifluece the level of capacity at these airports either whe o-pbn-capable or whe ot equipped with the appropriate PBN capabilities - RNP 1 (plus RF) ad APV (if ot capable of flyig precisio approach procedures; e.g. procedures based o ILS, or whe these are ot available) PCP airports with collocated military facilities A detailed aalysis should focus o PCP airports with collocated military facilities, which comprise: Brussels Natioal, Palma de Mallorca So Sa Jua, ad Oslo Gardermoe. For that purpose, the ratio of military flights at these airports was take ito cosideratio; ad, as secod iteratio, the correlatio betwee the umber of military flights ad the level of PBN capabilities required by the PCP Regulatio. Airport Ratio [military flights/total flights %] Brussels Natioal 0,38 Palma De Mallorca So Sa Jua 0,21 Oslo Gardermoe 0,48 Table 1. Ratio of military flights at PCP airports with collocated military facilities I tur, the level of RNP equipage related to PCP requiremets at those airports is show i Figure 4. As depicted i the histogram, approximately less tha half of military flights were equipped with RNP 1 capability ad fewer were APV compliat. 8

9 Figure 4. Level of RNP military flights at PCP airports with collocated military facilities PCP airports without collocated military facilities The figures for the remaiig airports covered by the PCP regulatio are more i lie with the oes preseted previously, as ca be verified below for the te most-used airports with regard to military flights. Airport Ratio [military flights/total flights %] Berli Bradeburg Airport 0,60 Paris-CDG 0,20 Stockholm-Arlada 0,25 Muich Fraz Josef Strauss 0,09 Istabul Ataturk Airport 0,07 Copehage Kastrup 0,12 Mila-Malpesa 0,12 Barceloa El Prat 0,08 Amsterdam Schiphol 0,04 Nice Cote d'azur 0,14 Table 2. Ratio of military flights at PCP airports without collocated military facilities. 9

10 Figure 5. Level of RNP military flights at the te most-used PCP airports without collocated military facilities As a overall coclusio, the ratio of military flights at the PCP airports is reasoably low, which could iaccurately be see as a mior issue. The level of military aircraft o-board equipage that fits ito the PCP Requiremets is rather low (e.g. globally below 50% for RNP 1), which experieces the sharpest figure with regard to RNP APCH A umber of caveats must be cosidered whe evaluatig impact: ay icrease i capacity ad safety is directly related to aircraft o-board equipage; system iteroperability (or performace equivalece i the future) should be a importat optio for solutios/syergies that eable the re-utilisatio of existig military capabilities; the ability to hadle o-pbn or lower capability aircraft is, to some extet, related to operatioal procedures i place ad ATCOs workload ad traiig; o-rnav-based SIDs ad STARs ad covetioal o-precisio approaches ca be a meas of mitigatig the PBN impact of more demadig specificatios. 5. Mechaisms for the compliace of military aircraft with PCP AF The PBN requiremets cosidered i the PCP Regulatio etail the availability of a NAV avioics suite with appropriate levels of itegrity ad accuracy as well as with moitorig ad alertig capability. Cosequetly, a very high level of itegratio is required A sigificat umber of military aircraft that eed to operate as GAT are ot compliat with the PBN specificatios as madated by the PCP regulatio. Therefore, the followig aspects must be cosidered: The eed to accommodate State aircraft flyig GAT is justified by the legitimate sovereigty roles ad atioal security ad defece missios that require urestricted access to the airspace, icludig to those airports icluded i the regulatio Military trasport-type aircraft may simply be forward-fitted as civil mailie at the ext major overhaul opportuity. 10

11 For certai aircraft types, research o potetial military systems re-utilisatio to sustai PCP requiremets may be cosidered for a sigificat umber of airbore systems Vertical avigatio capability was determied to be a weak aspect i military systems performace i that the vast majority of military aircraft is ot APV-equipped. For multiple aircraft types, equipage with compliat barometric cofiguratios - LNAV/VNAV, or with Satellite-based augmetatio system (SBAS) receivers - LPV - might be the preferred solutio Military avigatio computers offer limited capabilities which are isufficiet for complyig with more demadig requiremets Arragemets to cope with o-equipped or lower capability State aircraft o the basis of covetioal/ alterative avigatio procedures/support could be a trasitioal step Performace-based certificatio relyig o equivalet military capabilities as a process to comply with the PCP AF1 PBN requiremets should be cosidered. Author: Ricardo OLIVEIRA Navigatio Expert DATM/CMC/CNS (Directorate Air Traffic Maagemet/Civil-Military ATM Coordiatio Divisio/Commuicatios, Navigatio ad Surveillace) ricardo.oliveira@eurocotrol.it Reviewer: Jorge PEREIRA Head of Uit DATM/CMC/CNS jorge.pereira@eurocotrol.it

12 EUROCONTROL February Europea Orgaisatio for the Safety of Air Navigatio (EUROCONTROL) This documet is published by EUROCONTROL for iformatio purposes. It may be copied i whole or i part, provided that EUROCONTROL is metioed as the source ad it is ot used for commercial purposes (i.e. for fiacial gai). The iformatio i this documet may ot be modified without prior writte permissio from EUROCONTROL.