Aviation regulators from Europe, Australia, the United States and Canada held another round of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) harmonization talks in Europe this week, to ensure ADS-B ADS-B implementation onboard aircraft is globally interoperable. Representatives from Airservices Australia, FAA, Nav Canada Eurocontrol discussed the progress each of them had made in implementing ADS-B programs and addressed issues of standardization, regulation, aircraft equipage, certification trials and initial operational capability. ADS-B relies on aircraft broadcasting their identity, position and velocity. The signal transmitted by the aircraft can be captured by receivers on the ground (ADS-B-out) or in the aircraft (ADS-B-In).Representatives at the meeting noted EASA airworthiness approval material, expected in February, would be useful in harmonizing the early equipage requirements. Australia and Canada are expected to use compliance with EASA material as an input into early implementation approvals. For later implementations where performance may be more demanding, the consensus converged towards the requirements published by the FAA in its Notice of Proposed Rule-Making in October. “Whilst it is recognized that ADS-B-Out is by itself a cost-beneficial investment, it is important to keep the future benefits potential of ADS-B-In in mind,” said Alex Wandels, Eurocontrol’s CASCADE Program Manager. “In order to ensure the full return on investment in ADS-B, all rule-making in support of service delivery is expected to converge on the same, globally applicable requirements.”