ADS-B Technologies, based in Anchorage, Alaska, has responded to a FAA market survey request to identify vendors that could provide a space-based automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast (ADS-B) service in oceanic and remote mountainous regions starting in 2018.
These systems would enhance the FAA’s domestic ground-based ADS-B infrastructure, which should be operational in 2013 with full implementation in 2020.
The proposed ADS-B Technologies system would use the Globalstar Second Generation Low Earth Orbit constellation and the company’s proprietary ADS-B Link Augmentation System (ALAS) avionics interface to provide real-time aircraft position information to the FAA. The system allows aircraft to be tracked by controllers in areas where conventional surveillance methods are either impossible or impractical to employ. In addition to FAA tracking, individual aircraft could be equipped to see each other and receive real-time weather and airspace information from authorized sources on the ground.