Thales, one of the companies involved in bidding for FAA’s pending Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) contract, said it achieved several milestones for its ADS-B services. Industry teams led by ITT, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are vying for the contract, which is expected to be awarded as soon as next month. Thales is allied with ITT. Thales has launched the development of an Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) radio to augment its modular ADS-B product family. The addition of the UAT radio will provide ADS-B reception and various broadcast services for all en route, terminal or surface applications. The transceiver improves upon the current systems by offering twice the target processing capability and an integrated range validation function, Thales said. In addition, Thales said its ADS-B ground station in Langen, Germany, which provides Traffic Information Service–Broadcasts (TIS-B), achieved site acceptance with Deutsche Flugsicherung, Germany’s air traffic control organization. TIS-B broadcasts traffic information for non-ADS-B equipped aircraft to ADS-B aircraft, enhancing safety and efficiency. The Thales ADS-B ground station was deployed as part of the Eurocontrol CASCADE 3 project, which aims to validate and implement ADS-B operations. For related news