Development of required navigation performance (RNP) requirements for airport surface movement guidance and control

This paper presents the application of a relatively new concept, Required Navigation Performance (RNP), as a method to determine requirements for aircraft surface movement guidance and control. Currently, navigation standards do not exist for low visibility aircraft operations on runway and taxiway surfaces. Whereas there are enabling technologies under evaluation for aircraft guidance and Air Traffic Control surveillance on the airport surface, there are no performance requirements available to judge the suitability of specific systems. A top-down process is applied, starting with a target level of safety for each surface operation. RNP requirements are allocated to ground and airborne equipment and an approach is presented to validate the RMP allocations using a Functional Hazard Assessment (FHA).