The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) communications, navigation surveillance/air-traffic management (CNS/ATM) program has completed 13 certifications on different aircraft platforms since 2005, including seven certifications this year.

Managed by NAVAIR’s Air Combat Electronics program office, PMA 209, the CNS/ATM program this year certified new capabilities on the EA-6B Prowler, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, C-2A Greyhound, AV-8B Harrier, KC-130J tanker and EP-3E electronics intelligence aircraft.

To meet evolving civil interoperability requirements of FAA and Eurocontrol, PMA 209, designated by the Chief of Naval Operations to manage CNS/ATM requirements for all naval aircraft, earlier this decade developed functional requirements documents (FRDs) in four capability areas: 8.33 kHz channel spacing of VHF radio communications; Mode S data link; Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (RVSM); and Required Navigation Performance/Area Navigation (RNP/RNAV).

“Our functional requirements documents are what we molded to take the best of FAA requirements, Eurocontrol requirements, ICAO procedures that were coming out to deal with performance-based airspace, and implement them smartly into military aircraft for the Navy and Marine Corps,” explained David Staso, the CNS/ATM program team lead.
The guidance documents were developed in 2002 and 2003 and “almost to date, they’ve held up pretty strong,” Staso said. Revisions were made for 8.33 kHz channel spacing in 2005; for RNP/RNAV and Mode S in 2006.

PMA 209 certified RNP/RNAV functionality on the P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft in November 2007. Different than a civil approval, the Navy certification uses the military’s GPS Precise Positioning Service (PPS) to ensure navigational accuracy and integrity. The Navy also relies on a different database than commercial operators -- the Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File (DAFIF) supplied by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), to fly RNP/RNAV operations. Working with NGA, the service’s goal is to develop new RNP/RNAV procedures within 24 hours, Staso said.

Capt. Ralph I. Portnoy, PMA 209 program manager, said NAVAIR strives to use common avionics across multiple platforms in meeting the CNS/ATM program goals.

“Every platform you can imagine, is kind of in a different situation,” Portnoy told Avionics Magazine. “We tailor our support and what we do for each platform as needed. We just don’t want to duplicate capability and infrastructure, but there are a lot of common opportunities out there. We have a lot of people riding on our solutions and they’ve trusted us to deliver.”

Portnoy added, “We’re all about commonality, interoperability, leveraging solutions that others have invested in, trying to be smart with the taxpayers money.”