ITT Plans ADS-B 'Critical' Services

The ITT Corp. team building the ground infrastructure for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) in the United States will begin deploying equipment to key sites identified for “critical” services early next year.

In August, the team gained initial operating capability (IOC) from FAA for a network of 11 radio sites providing “essential” services in southern Florida. Essential services under the ADS-B contract awarded in August 2007 refers to the provision of Traffic Information Service Broadcasts (TIS-B) and Flight Information Service Broadcasts (FIS-B). Critical services involves the presentation of ADS-B targets on controllers’ displays and the “rebroadcast” of signals from aircraft equipped with 1090 MHz transponders to those with Universal Access Transceivers (UAT) and vice-versa, under FAA’s dual-frequency approach.

The key sites for deployment of critical services are Louisville, Ken., Philadelphia, the Gulf of Mexico and Juneau, Alaska. In an interview with Avionics, John Kefaliotis, ITT director of business development for FAA and Air Traffic Control programs, said those sites are scheduled for IOC in the third or fourth quarter of 2009. Kefaliotis said the ADS-B roll-out is on budget and on schedule.