Integration of Current Implementation Efforts with Long-term Planning for the Next Generation Air Transportation System
Gao ID: GAO-11-132R November 22, 2010The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the lead implementer and planner for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen)--an ambitious, multiyear, multibillion-dollar overhaul of systems, procedures, aircraft performance capabilities, and supporting infrastructure that will create an air transportation system that uses satellite-based surveillance and navigation and network-centric operations. NextGen was designed as an interagency effort to leverage expertise and funding throughout the federal government. The Senior Policy Committee--the overall governing body for NextGen, chaired by the Secretary of Transportation--consists ocabinet-level officials from each of the partner agencies. The initial planning for NextGen, which began with Vision 100 in 2003 and was carried out by the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) within FAA, focused on improvements to the air transportation system that would be implemented through 2025. JPDO produced three key planning documents--a Concept of Operations, a NextGen Enterprise Architecture, and an Integrated Work Plan (IWP). Recently, FAA has shifted its focus from the longer term (i.e., beyond 2018) and emphasized improvements that can be implemented in the near term and midterm (2010 through 2018). The shift responds, in part, to concerns expressed by stakeholders and Members of Congress about the lack of progress in FAA's implementation of NextGen, which they view as reminiscent of the schedule delays and other issues that plagued FAA's previous air traffic control modernization efforts. This shift is embodied in FAA's 2010 NextGen Implementation Plan, which responds to priorities put forward by stakeholders for NextGen implementation by the NextGen Mid-Term Implementation Task Force (the Task Force).
FAA has generally identified the NextGen capabilities that it plans to implement in the near term to midterm, through 2018. These capabilities are laid out in the 2010 NextGen Implementation Plan, which feeds into FAA's overall national airspace system Enterprise Architecture, which, in turn, is aligned with JPDO's NextGen Enterprise Architecture. Supporting the NextGen Implementation Plan are two more detailed plans--Segment A, which defines detailed activities through 2015, and Segment B, which defines NextGen capabilities through 2018. These two plans detail the specific actions that must take place to implement the identified capabilities. According to FAA, Segment A has been developed, while Segment B is expected to be completed over the next 12 to 18 months. These plans are not made publicly available, but FAA plans to include a description of Segment A in its 2011 NextGen Implementation Plan. In addition, these two plans reflect FAA's responses to recommendations from industry and other stakeholders, developed by the Task Force, which was formed at the request of FAA and included representation from the four major aviation operating communities--airlines, business aviation, general aviation, and the military--as well as participation from air traffic controllers, airports, avionics and aircraft manufacturers, and other key stakeholders. Thus, the Task Force's recommendations represent a consensus view from industry on how to move forward with NextGen. The Task Force recommended that FAA implement those capabilities that the industry identified as maximizing benefits and facilitating a business case for industry investment across five key areas--surface operations, runway access, congestion relief in metropolitan areas, cruise operations, and access to certain airspace--and two crosscutting areas--data communication applications and integrated air traffic management. In developing the 2010 NextGen Implementation Plan and its supporting documents, FAA has continued to work with the Task Force to further refine the recommended actions and priorities. While FAA has taken a number of actions to respond to the Task Force recommendations and integrate those recommendations in its plans, some gaps remain in FAA's response. In an August 2010 meeting of the Air Traffic Management Advisory Committee, the Chairman recommended that FAA address remaining gaps between the Task Force recommendations and the responses reflected in the NextGen Implementation Plan and publish an updated plan or a document that will detail the changes FAA will make to its plans to address these gaps. FAA directed RTCA to create a new advisory committee for NextGen--the NextGen Advisory Committee--that includes senior industry participants. We recently recommended to FAA that it work with industry and other stakeholders to develop outcome-based performance metrics and goals for NextGen broadly and for specific NextGen portfolios, programs, and capabilities and share them with the Congress. We recommended that FAA develop a timeline and action plan to agree with stakeholders on a list of specific goals and outcome-based performance metrics for NextGen. The Task Force also made related recommendations for the development of performance metrics and made recommendations specific to FAA's approach to developing performance-based navigational procedures. FAA has recently taken several actions that begin to respond to these recommendations and areas of concern. For example, in response to the Task Force, FAA is creating teams that will include FAA and industry to evaluate performance-based navigation procedures at individual airports. FAA has created two such prototype teams in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In addition, the new NextGen Advisory Committee has been tasked with collaborating with FAA on establishing high-level performance measures for NextGen.
GAO-11-132R, Integration of Current Implementation Efforts with Long-term Planning for the Next Generation Air Transportation System
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GAO-11-132R:
United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
November 22, 2010:
The Honorable John L. Mica:
Ranking Member:
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure:
House of Representatives:
The Honorable Thomas E. Petri:
Ranking Member:
Subcommittee on Aviation:
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure:
House of Representatives:
Subject: Integration of Current Implementation Efforts with Long-term
Planning for the Next Generation Air Transportation System:
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the lead implementer and
planner for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen)--
an ambitious, multiyear, multibillion-dollar overhaul of systems,
procedures, aircraft performance capabilities, and supporting
infrastructure that will create an air transportation system that uses
satellite-based surveillance and navigation and network-centric
operations.[Footnote 1] NextGen was designed as an interagency effort
to leverage expertise and funding throughout the federal government.
The Senior Policy Committee--the overall governing body for NextGen,
chaired by the Secretary of Transportation--consists of cabinet-level
officials from each of the partner agencies.[Footnote 2]
The initial planning for NextGen, which began with Vision 100[Footnote
3] in 2003 and was carried out by the Joint Planning and Development
Office (JPDO) within FAA, focused on improvements to the air
transportation system that would be implemented through 2025. JPDO
produced three key planning documents--a Concept of Operations, a
NextGen Enterprise Architecture, and an Integrated Work Plan (IWP).
Recently, FAA has shifted its focus from the longer term (i.e., beyond
2018) and emphasized improvements that can be implemented in the near
term and midterm (2010 through 2018). The shift responds, in part, to
concerns expressed by stakeholders and Members of Congress about the
lack of progress in FAA's implementation of NextGen, which they view
as reminiscent of the schedule delays and other issues that plagued
FAA's previous air traffic control modernization efforts. This shift
is embodied in FAA's 2010 NextGen Implementation Plan, which responds
to priorities put forward by stakeholders for NextGen implementation
by the NextGen Mid-Term Implementation Task Force (the Task
Force)[Footnote 4]. Members of Congress also have expressed concern
that shifting too much focus to the near term may result in FAA's not
taking actions that must be taken now to enable capabilities
envisioned over the long term.
In April 2010, we testified before the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure's Subcommittee on Aviation regarding issues related to
integrating near-, mid-, and long-term NextGen activities.[Footnote 5]
In July 2010, we reported on NextGen metrics, discussing information
related to FAA's goals and milestones for NextGen.[Footnote 6] This
report summarizes and expands on previously reported information, as
requested, and addresses (1) the extent to which FAA has clearly
identified the NextGen capabilities that it plans to implement in the
near, mid, and long term; (2) whether FAA and the Senior Policy
Committee have laid out specific performance goals or metrics for
delivering NextGen capabilities; and (3) the extent to which FAA has
examined long-term NextGen benefits to make a business case for
airlines to equip their aircraft with the advanced avionics needed for
NextGen operations.
To accomplish our objectives, we drew primarily upon prior reports and
testimonies as we have previously described. In those reports and
testimonies, we obtained and reviewed information from FAA's NextGen
Integration and Implementation Office, Air Traffic Organization, and
JPDO about NextGen plans that describe the capabilities that FAA is
pursuing as well as reports used to justify NextGen programs before
investment decisions are made, and that describe the metrics FAA uses
to monitor program implementation and performance. In addition, we
reviewed FAA performance reports and other documents that describe
FAA's broader performance metrics and additional NextGen performance
metrics that FAA is considering. We also reviewed FAA's modeling
efforts designed to identify long-term NextGen capabilities, costs,
and benefits. We interviewed key officials in these offices and
organizations, as well as key staff of the Senior Policy Committee,
and several key stakeholders for NextGen, including representatives
from airlines; equipment manufacturers; federal partner agencies'
RTCA, Inc.;[Footnote 7] the MITRE Corporation;[Footnote 8] and others.
We augmented and updated this information through additional
interviews with FAA officials, a review of FAA's recent NextGen
activities, and consideration of the findings of Transportation's
Office of Inspector General recent report on long-term challenges
facing FAA.[Footnote 9]
We conducted work for these previous reports from June 2009 through
July 2010 and conducted additional work for this performance audit
from July 2010 through November 2010 in accordance with generally
accepted government auditing standards. These standards require that
we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate
evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and
conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe the evidence
obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions
based on our audit objectives.
FAA Has Generally Identified Near Term and Midterm Capabilities but Is
Still Analyzing Long-term Capabilities and Has Yet to Make Key
Decisions:
NextGen Capabilities Planned through 2018 Reflect Industry and Other
Stakeholder Recommendations, but Some Gaps Remain:
FAA has generally identified the NextGen capabilities that it plans to
implement in the near term to midterm, through 2018. These
capabilities are laid out in the 2010 NextGen Implementation Plan,
which feeds into FAA's overall national airspace system Enterprise
Architecture, which, in turn, is aligned with JPDO's NextGen
Enterprise Architecture.[Footnote 10] Supporting the NextGen
Implementation Plan are two more detailed plans--Segment A, which
defines detailed activities through 2015, and Segment B, which defines
NextGen capabilities through 2018. These two plans detail the specific
actions that must take place to implement the identified capabilities.
According to FAA, Segment A has been developed, while Segment B is
expected to be completed over the next 12 to 18 months. These plans
are not made publicly available, but FAA plans to include a
description of Segment A in its 2011 NextGen Implementation Plan.
In addition, these two plans reflect FAA's responses to
recommendations from industry and other stakeholders, developed by the
Task Force, which was formed at the request of FAA and included
representation from the four major aviation operating communities--
airlines, business aviation, general aviation, and the military--as
well as participation from air traffic controllers, airports, avionics
and aircraft manufacturers, and other key stakeholders. Thus, the Task
Force's recommendations represent a consensus view from industry on
how to move forward with NextGen. The Task Force recommended that FAA
implement those capabilities that the industry identified as
maximizing benefits and facilitating a business case for industry
investment across five key areas--surface operations, runway access,
congestion relief in metropolitan areas, cruise operations, and access
to certain airspace--and two crosscutting areas--data communication
applications and integrated air traffic management. In developing the
2010 NextGen Implementation Plan and its supporting documents, FAA has
continued to work with the Task Force to further refine the
recommended actions and priorities.
While FAA has taken a number of actions to respond to the Task Force
recommendations and integrate those recommendations in its plans, some
gaps remain in FAA's response. In an August 2010 meeting of the Air
Traffic Management Advisory Committee, the Chairman recommended that
FAA address remaining gaps between the Task Force recommendations and
the responses reflected in the NextGen Implementation Plan and publish
an updated plan or a document that will detail the changes FAA will
make to its plans to address these gaps. FAA directed RTCA to create a
new advisory committee for NextGen--the NextGen Advisory Committee--
that includes senior industry participants. This committee has been
tasked to follow up on this recommendation and be a mechanism for
collaboration between FAA, industry, and other stakeholders. More
recently, at an October 2010 meeting of the Air Traffic Management
Advisory Committee, FAA presented responses indicating steps it will
take to address the remaining gaps and reiterated that its responses
and actions will be integrated into the 2011 NextGen Implementation
Plan.
Plans for Longer-term Capabilities Will Continue to Evolve in Response
to Cost Considerations and Technology Development:
JPDO's Concept of Operations, NextGen Enterprise Architecture, and IWP
identify all of the NextGen capabilities envisioned through 2025 and
continue to be the key documents that identify long-term capabilities.
However, these documents not only identify specific capabilities that
FAA plans to pursue, but also contain a wide variety of possible ideas
and approaches. Therefore, they are not static documents and will
continue to evolve. A recent analysis, commissioned by JPDO, sought to
examine the costs, risks, and benefits of the IWP and modeled a
variety of scenarios that assumed different levels of ground
capability and aircraft capability over the long term. According to
this analysis, implementing the highest performance levels envisioned
in the IWP for ground and aircraft capabilities by 2025 could increase
NextGen's costs significantly beyond the initial cost estimate of $40
billion (e.g., in some scenarios that require every aircraft to be
equipped with extensive avionics in a shorter time frame, estimated
costs can go as high as $160 billion). If the highest performance
levels are implemented over a longer period, by 2035, the cost
estimates would be lower, but still would be considerably higher than
$40 billion. This analysis also shows a subset of scenarios within the
IWP, developed assuming lower levels of ground and aircraft
capabilities, whose cost estimate remains in the $40 billion range.
This analysis continues to be updated and revised, and other possible
scenarios will be evaluated. In addition, estimates of long-term
benefits associated with various NextGen alternatives continue to be
modeled and analyzed. The newly appointed JPDO Director has committed
to reexamining the long-term goals of NextGen in light of new
realities in the economy and the aviation industry as well as the
progress and results of NextGen implementation efforts to date.
[Footnote 11] Furthermore, later this year, FAA will be reporting on
additional scenarios through 2025. This analysis looks at examining
alternative portfolios of NextGen capabilities that would extend the
evolution of NextGen beyond 2018.
Achieving the long-term capabilities envisioned for NextGen will
require research and development by FAA, its partner agencies, and the
private sector as well as effective transfer of the technology that is
ultimately developed. We have previously reported on research gaps,
[Footnote 12] and Transportation's Inspector General recently
reported that significant research and development issues remain
unresolved, including (1) synchronizing weather-related applications
among JPDO, FAA, and Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration; (2) coordinating joint surveillance requirements with
Defense and Homeland Security; (3) developing a cross-agency plan for
research on the human factors' impact of NextGen on controllers and
pilots; and (4) developing cross-agency requirements, standards,
procedures, and avionics for introducing unmanned aircraft systems
into the NextGen environment. At your request, we have begun
additional work on FAA's mechanisms and processes for technology
transfer.
Implementation of Capabilities at All Stages Depends on Decisions That
FAA Has Yet to Make:
We recently reported that FAA has yet to make many key decisions
required to shape and determine the future direction of NextGen.
[Footnote 13] We identified key decisions, such as how to provide
incentives for operators to install avionics equipment on their
aircraft where a clear business case is not evident, how environmental
reviews can be expedited, and how much additional airport capacity
will be needed. Absent decisions in these key areas, it is unclear how
or whether FAA can achieve its plans for implementing NextGen
capabilities. For example, without a clear strategy and decisions
about how best-equipped, best-served air traffic management policies
will work in practice;[Footnote 14] or what financial incentives for
equipage, if any, will be offered, it is not clear when or to what
extent aircraft operating in the national airspace system will be
equipped to take advantage of capabilities being implemented on the
ground.
Transportation's Inspector General recently identified additional key
decisions that will affect the long-term direction of NextGen. Such
decisions include the division of responsibility between pilots in the
cockpit and controllers on the ground, the level of automation and
degree of human involvement in future air traffic control procedures,
and the scope of facilities consolidation that FAA may pursue.
According to FAA, the agency's NextGen planning through 2018 has
maintained the role of the human as the ultimate decision maker, and
FAA does not anticipate the roles of pilots and controllers to
fundamentally shift or be fully automated. Any other shift in
automation or roles between controllers and pilots is subject to long-
term research, and decisions about the level of automation could
result in changes to research and development efforts currently under
way. However, according to FAA, such shifts are currently not
anticipated.
FAA and the Senior Policy Committee Have Not Established Performance
Goals and Metrics for NextGen:
While FAA has identified capabilities, modeled potential benefits from
those capabilities, and identified broad performance areas for
NextGen, the agency has yet to identify clear goals for the
performance of these capabilities or to settle on a set of metrics for
measuring their performance relative to any goals. For example,
NextGen capabilities are expected to improve performance in a number
of areas, such as increasing capacity to accommodate future demand,
reducing delay, and improving environmental performance. FAA has
modeled the potential benefits in these areas from implementing
capabilities identified in the NextGen Implementation Plan through
2018 and has estimated that--under certain assumptions--implementing
these capabilities will reduce delays by about 21 percent, compared
with doing nothing (although the model estimates that the average
delay will nonetheless be greater than it is today), and save more
than 1.4 billion gallons of fuel. However, FAA has not established
these outcomes as goals for NextGen or identified how implementing
NextGen capabilities will help lead to their achievement. In addition,
the Senior Policy Committee, which is the overarching governing body
for NextGen, has not established any specific milestones for
delivering NextGen capabilities, nor has it set specific NextGen
implementation goals or metrics for FAA or any of its other federal
partner agency members. According to the Senior Policy Committee's
liaison, now the new Director of JPDO, the Senior Policy Committee is
working to set high-level goals and milestones, but no clear progress
has been made to date.
Without goals and metrics, FAA could pursue and implement capabilities
that fail to produce the desired results. Currently, for example, FAA
lacks goals and metrics for its development of performance-based
navigational routes[Footnote 15] that focus on reducing delays and
saving fuel, and stakeholders have complained that these routes
provide relatively little benefit to aircraft operators. Instead, FAA
measures its performance in this area by counting the number of
procedures that it develops each year. Stakeholders argue that this
performance measure has created an incentive for FAA to focus on
procedures that are easier and quicker to develop than other
procedures that might have greater benefits. If, by contrast, the
agency measured its performance by the reductions in flying times and
fuel use that operators derived from using the procedures, then the
agency would have an incentive to focus on developing procedures with
those types of benefits.
We recently recommended to FAA that it work with industry and other
stakeholders to develop outcome-based performance metrics and goals
for NextGen broadly and for specific NextGen portfolios, programs, and
capabilities and share them with the Congress.[Footnote 16] We
recommended that FAA develop a timeline and action plan to agree with
stakeholders on a list of specific goals and outcome-based performance
metrics for NextGen. The Task Force also made related recommendations
for the development of performance metrics and made recommendations
specific to FAA's approach to developing performance-based
navigational procedures. FAA has recently taken several actions that
begin to respond to these recommendations and areas of concern. For
example, in response to the Task Force, FAA is creating teams that
will include FAA and industry to evaluate performance-based navigation
procedures at individual airports. FAA has created two such prototype
teams in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In addition, the new NextGen
Advisory Committee has been tasked with collaborating with FAA on
establishing high-level performance measures for NextGen.
FAA Has Yet to Fully Assess Long-term Benefits to Support a Business
Case for Airlines to Equip Their Aircraft with Advanced Avionics:
FAA has yet to fully assess long-term benefits to help make a business
case for aircraft operators to equip with advanced avionics.
Nonetheless, each of FAA's NextGen acquisitions, as a matter of
course, is approved by the Joint Resources Council, and justified to
the council on the basis of an assessment of all of the direct costs
and benefits that can reasonably be estimated to flow from the
investment, both to FAA and to operators.[Footnote 17] For example,
the justification for the ADS-B[Footnote 18] acquisition program
assessed the benefits to FAA from improving the efficiency of its
operations and reducing its radar maintenance costs and the benefits
to aircraft operators, such as reduced waiting times, flight times,
and fuel use. While FAA did develop estimates of operators' costs to
equip aircraft, determining the costs for any particular operator
relative to the benefits that operator would receive (i.e., whether
there is a business case for any single operator to invest in the
avionics needed) was not an explicit part of FAA's investment decision-
making process. It is important to note that given the competitive
nature of the airline industry, it would not be appropriate for FAA to
consider the circumstances of individual operators in making decisions
about improvements to the national airspace system.
In terms of supporting a business case for operators to equip with the
necessary avionics, FAA has yet to develop a strategy to address this
issue. Two key decisions are whether all scheduled aircraft need to be
equipped at all locations and when aircraft should be equipped with
various technologies. In addition, although FAA has established a
working group to explore best-equipped, best-served focus areas, it
has yet to make any specific decisions about how it will put its best-
equipped, best-served policy into practice. In our past work, we have
emphasized that FAA must align aircraft-equipping rules and incentives
in a way that minimizes the government's costs and maximizes the
overall benefits of NextGen.[Footnote 19] We also have previously
reported that, in some cases, the federal government may deem
financial or other incentives desirable to speed the deployment of new
equipment, and that the decision to offer incentives will depend on
the technology and its potential to provide an adequate and timely
return on public and private investment. In particular, FAA must focus
on delivering near-term operational benefits to users of the airspace
by completing activities that will capitalize on users' past
investment in aircraft avionics. Efforts to develop more-efficient
procedures, redesign airspace, develop performance standards, and
reduce aircraft separation standards will help build trust and
confidence in FAA's ability to deliver benefits to users and provide
incentives for users, especially commercial airlines, to invest in
additional equipment for their aircraft.
As we have previously discussed, FAA and JPDO are currently modeling
the costs and benefits associated with various future equipage levels,
types of equipage capabilities, and levels of ground capabilities
implemented. This work will provide important information to
stakeholders and decision makers about the benefits that can be
achieved at various equipage levels and can help inform a strategy for
achieving a desired level of equipage. This work is still in the
preliminary stage.
Agency Comments:
We provided a draft of this report to FAA for review and comment. FAA
provided technical corrections, which were incorporated into the
report.
As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce the contents
of this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 10 days
from the report date. At that time, we will send copies to the
appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary of Transportation,
and other interested parties. In addition, the report will be
available at no charge on GAO's Web site at [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov].
If you or your staffs have any questions about this report, please
contact me at (202) 512-2834 or dillinghamg@gao.gov. Contact points
for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be
found on the last page of this report. Key contributors to this report
include Andrew Von Ah (Assistant Director), Kevin Egan, Bert Japikse,
Brandon Haller, and Dominic Nadarski.
Signed by:
Gerald L. Dillingham, Ph.D.
Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues:
[End of section]
Footnotes:
[1] Network-centric operations involve the instant sharing of
information and data among users, systems, and networks. These
operations use infrastructure and information services to provide the
critical exchange of digital information for air-to-air and air-to-
ground applications as well as applications involving satellite-based
information sources.
[2] In addition to FAA, the federal partner agencies are the
Departments of Commerce (particularly, its National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration), Defense, Homeland Security, and
Transportation; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and
the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
[3] Pub. L. No. 108-176, Vision 100--Century of Aviation
Reauthorization Act (Dec. 12, 2003).
[4] RTCA, Inc., NextGen Mid-Term Implementation Task Force Report
(Washington, D.C.: Sept. 9, 2009).
[5] GAO, Next Generation Air Transportation System: Challenges with
Partner Agency and FAA Coordination Continue, and Efforts to Integrate
Near-, Mid-, and Long-term Activities Are Ongoing, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-649T] (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 21,
2010).
[6] GAO, NextGen Air Transportation System: FAA's Metrics Can Be Used
to Report on Status of Individual Programs, but Not of Overall NextGen
Implementation of Outcomes, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-629] (Washington, D.C.: July 27,
2010).
[7] RTCA is a private, not-for-profit corporation that develops
consensus-based recommendations on communications, navigation,
surveillance, and air traffic management system issues.
[8] MITRE is a not-for-profit organization chartered to work in the
public interest. It manages four Federally Funded Research and
Development Centers, including one for FAA. MITRE has its own
independent research and development program that explores new
technologies and new uses of technologies to solve problems in the
near term and in the future.
[9] Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General, Timely
Actions Needed to Advance the Next Generation Air Transportation
System, Report Number AV-2010-068 (Washington, D.C.: June 16, 2010).
[10] Enterprise architecture--similar to blueprints for a building--
provides the structure to relate an organization's mission, vision,
and goals to its business processes and the technical infrastructure
required to execute them.
[11] In addition, the Secretary of Transportation has recently
convened the Future of Aviation Advisory Committee, which, according
to Transportation's Web site will "provide information, advice, and
recommendations to the Secretary on ensuring the competitiveness of
the U.S. aviation industry and its capability to address the evolving
transportation needs, challenges, and opportunities of the global
economy."
[12] GAO, Next Generation Air Transportation System: Status of Systems
Acquisition and the Transition to the Next Generation Air
Transportation System, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-1078] (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 11,
2008).
[13] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-649T].
[14] Best-equipped, best-served policies are those in which higher
levels of service, or priority service, is provided to those aircraft
equipped with the necessary avionics. One example of a best-equipped,
best-served concept would be for airplanes equipped with the necessary
avionics to be able to accept clearances and changed flight plans
automatically, which would provide an efficiency benefit to the
equipped airplane, reduce controller workload, and save the system
money. However, several practical considerations will need to be
worked through for this to take place. For example, controllers will
need to have a clear method for determining which aircraft they are
currently controlling actually have the requisite equipment to receive
the automatic clearances.
[15] Performance-based navigation includes such things as Area
Navigation (RNAV), which enables aircraft to fly on any path within
coverage of ground-or space-based navigation aids, permitting more
access and flexibility for point-to-point operations; and Required
Navigation Performance (RNP), which, like RNAV, enables aircraft to
fly on any path within coverage of ground-or space-based navigation
aids, but also includes an onboard performance-monitoring capability.
RNP also enables closer en route spacing without intervention by air
traffic control and permits more precise and consistent arrivals and
departures.
[16] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-629].
[17] Within FAA, the Joint Resources Council is an executive body
consisting of associate and assistant administrators, acquisition
executives, the chief financial officer, the chief information
officer, and legal counsel. The council makes agency-level decisions,
including those that determine whether an acquisition meets a mission
need and should proceed. The council also approves changes to a
program's baseline, budget submissions, and the national airspace
system's architecture baseline.
[18] Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast is a satellite-based
information broadcasting system that is designed, along with GPS-based
navigation technologies, to enable more precise control of aircraft
during en route flight, approach, and descent.
[19] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-649T].
[End of section]
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