Industrial Research & Validation for Master Plan Phase C Civil-military Interoperability & Coordination

The key objective of this topic is to achieve TRL6 maturity level for civil–military objectives under phase C of the ATM Master Plan 2020, supporting higher levels of civil–military coordination and interoperability.

• Environment. Further integration of military flight data into flight planning and the network will allow civil airspace users to make better use of available airspace capacity, thus leading to greater fuel efficiency.
• Capacity. Improving how military airspace demands are managed will lead to a more efficient overall use of available airspace capacity by civil traffic.
• Security. The confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and data are crucial in ensuring safe and secure military operations.
• Cost-efficiency. The dual use of a service-driven integrated CNS infrastructure will ensure cross-domain CNS consistency in terms of robustness, spectrum use and interoperability for military and civil users. Integrated CNS services will ensure that military needs are met in terms of security, appropriate levels of quality of service and access to radio frequency spectrum resources, while reducing costs.
• Civil–military coordination. The coordination of shareable data relating to mission trajectories with the NM will ensure the optimal and timely integration of military flight data into the network, thus allowing solid and reliable traffic predictions.

To achieve the expected outcomes, all or some of the following should be addressed.

• Dynamic airspace configurations (levels 1 and 2). Dynamic airspace configurations and airspace management will improve the use of airspace capacity for both civil and military users by increasing the granularity and flexibility of airspace organisation and design. The objective is to achieve TRL6 for a fully dynamic, agile and cross-border airspace management concept that will take into consideration all capacity/demand aspects and constraints in one seamless process, with a higher level of modularity and flexibility up to the execution phase, all supported by automated tools (PJ.09-W2-44). This includes the following elements. 
  • The integration of dynamic airspace configurations with ATFCM into a single rolling planning process will collaboratively optimise traffic flows and airspace resource utilisation, thus increasing levels of capacity and flexibility to allow capacity variations in time and space to meet levels of demand.
  • Digital INAP will optimise the flow management process by addressing the planning gap between ATFCM and ATC processes and will facilitate layered ATM planning in the execution phase, including the development of automation support (e.g. what-if and what-else tools based on AI, ML and big data).
  • The research will investigate the integration of concepts and procedures to allow flexible sectorisation to be dynamically modified based on demand.
  • DMA 2 will support the dynamic configuration of segregated airspace and management of mission trajectories, thus contributing to the efficiency of both civil and military operations. The areas will have the potential to ‘roll up’ following use over time, distance and volume as a mission progresses, allowing the early release of airspace for other users.
• Improved and harmonised operational air traffic flight plan. This improved flight plan will constitute the first description of the mission trajectory integrated into the ATM network systems for processing and distribution. Interaction between WOCs and the NM in terms of integrated operational air traffic flight plan management will be covered (PJ.07-W2-40).
• Integration of mission trajectories into network operations. This will involve all the actors concerned (e.g. military airspace users / WOCs, the NM, ATS providers (civil or military) and military control / air defence units) to accommodate individual military airspace user needs and priorities without compromising optimum ATM system outcomes or the performance of any stakeholder. This will include integrating military demand into ATM network operations (Mission trajectory and ARES). Mission trajectories will be integrated into a TBO environment throughout all phases of trajectory planning and execution (SMT/RMT); they will be subject to trajectory management processes and include 4D targets and ATM constraints (PJ.07-W2-40).