Feds Want to Equipe Gliders With Transponders and Radios

On Sat, 03 May 2008 20:15:32 -0400, Jennifer Allen
wrote in :



Larry Dighera wrote:

On Sat, 03 May 2008 23:15:03 GMT, wrote in
:



The FAA radars are what they are.

You can arm wave forever about what they could be, but that isn't going
to change them.

But decommissioning them, as part of the ADS-B implementation, will
make them moot.

What is being lost? Primary radar is making a comeback after 2001, not
going away.

I would enjoy reading supporting documentation for that assertion.


As this message thread refers to painting glider primary targets, it
would seem that post ADS-B, the FAA primary radars will be
decommissioned with the exception of those around the peripheral of
the US, hence my statement above.

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:...ient=firefox-a
Decommissioning only the primary radar would result in both cost
avoidance (no upgrades) and maintenance cost-savings. Annual savings
estimates are approximately $30M per year. (Note: For purposes of
national defense, the primary radars around the peripheral of the
United States, would not be decommissioned in the near term).



http://astra.aero/downloads/ABIT/ABI...ting_final.pdf
The FAA envisions decommissioning. more than 300 en route radars. ...



http://www.fcw.com/print/12_23/news/94989-1.html
Radar is an outdated technology, the FAA says. Moving to ADS-B will
let the agency eventually decommission some of the current ground
radars. According to an FAA report, radar is imperfect and sometimes
has trouble distinguishing airplanes from flocks of birds or patches
of rain.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat...ance-broadcast
FAA segment 3 (2015-2020)

ADS-B In equipage will be based on user perceived benefit, but is
expected to be providing increased situational awareness and
efficiency benefits within this segment. Those aircraft who choose to
equip in advance of any mandate will see benefits associated with
preferential routes and specific applications. Limited radar
decommissioning will begin in the time frame with an ultimate goal of
a 50% reduction in the Secondary Surveillance Radar infrastructure.



http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/...0-07_Final.pdf
Will there be a back-up system for ADS-B?

Yes, the FAA recognizes that a back-up system is needed in case of
problems with the satellite system. In 2006, a team from the FAA,
industry, and the military performed an analysis, taking into account
such things as the operational capability needed during an outage, the
length of time the back-up system would be expected to operate during
an outage, and any overlap between the back-up and ADS-B that would
result in a vulnerability. The agency adopted the team’s
recommendation to maintain about half the current network of
*secondary* radars as a back-up system in case of a GPS outage.