Rotorcraft Report: ITT Wins ADS-B Award

PRODUCTS/AVIONICS

Describing the company’s proposal as the least risky of three bids, the FAA on Aug. 30 named ITT Corp. as prime contractor for the rollout of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) service in the United States.

The contract, with options, is valued at $1.86 billion over 18 years. The first phase, costing $207 million over three years, would cover development, test and deployment of ADS-B in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisville, Ky., Philadelphia, and Juneau, Alaska. The balance of the contract would cover subscription charges for 15 years based on service volumes.

ITT’s 15-company team presented a technological solution for deploying ADS-B judged superior to competing proposals from industry teams led by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. The three teams passed an initial screening by FAA late last year and answered a request for offers issued in March. "This team’s proposal combined the best value and the least risk for a successful implementation," FAA Deputy Administrator Robert Sturgell said. "In just three years under this contract, we’ll be able to commission ADS-B services, and in six years we’ll have ADS-B coverage everywhere we now have radar."

ITT’s director of business development for FAA and air traffic control programs, John Kefaliotis, said. "We do believe — in fact, the FAA has stated — that we’ve offered an exceptional technical solution."

ITT has proposed a dual-frequency approach to ADS-B position reporting that will require the use of universal access transceivers (UAT) on general aviation aircraft and 1090-MHz extended squitter transponders on airliners and other large aircraft. FAA will specify avionics equipage through a formal rulemaking, with an expected 10-year phase-in period. ITT’s proposal is "heavily invested in a pre-existing infrastructure," and includes the use of AT&T cell phone towers for ADS-B ground station installations, said Vincent Capezzuto, FAA director of surveillance and broadcast services. Among the other principals, Thales North America will supply the 1090 MHz and UAT ground-based Transceivers (GBTs). ITT’s architecture consists of 749 GBTs. —Bill Carey