ADS-B in Jamaica

Era Systems has been selected to provide an automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system to the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA). 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 country’s 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. “The JCAA recognizes that Era’s 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 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.”