CNS/ATM avionics for a militarized commercial transport

This paper summarizes Air Mobility Command's (AMC's) non-developmental airlift aircraft (NDAA) avionics requirements, information gleaned from surveys of the aeronautical community without attribution, and an assessment of potential air traffic control (ATC) and command and control (C/sup 2/) avionics that would provide the necessary capabilities to meet NDAA objectives. Communications capabilities may include Inmarsat-Aero and military ultra high frequency (UHF) satellite communications (SATCOM); air/ground very high frequency (VHF) and UHF; military high frequency (HF) and HF data link; and provisioning for the aeronautical telecommunications network (ATN) protocols for interconnecting satellite, Mode Select (S), VHF, and possibly HF terminals. Navigation and precision landing systems are also discussed. Looking towards future communications, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) concepts, another theme of the paper is preplanned product improvements (P/sup 3/I) leading to increased performance capabilities as new avionics and operational procedures become available. The ultimate goal is the ability to participate in "free flight", a concept that will be described as the CNS/ATM vision of the future.