CNS/ATM Goes Online In June

6 January 2017

From This
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has announced yesterday that the new P13.25 billion Communications Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) system will be operational by the end of June, replacing analog ground-based system with satellite-based CNS/ATM technology that will put the country at par with the rest of the world by having aircraft transponders receive satellite signals and using transponder transmissions to determine the precise locations of aircraft in the sky.


To This
The long delayed project was funded in part by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with a grant of 22,049 million yen
and is expected to provide more efficient and safer air traffic flow management in the Philippines.

The project was partly funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It includes the establishment of a central traffic control complex housed in the CAAP office in Manila, and 10 radar sites covering the entire Philippine Flight Information Region.

CAAP said the system is now 92% complete as they are testing and processing the integration and migration of the new navigational system.

Package 1 of the CNS/ATM project was finally awarded to a joint venture of Japan's Sumitomo Corporation and Thales Australia Ltd (formerly Thomson-CSF) after being frozen by the Commission on Audit for 3 years due to corruption allegations. The package involved the installation of the latest Eurocat system with an integrated Digital Voice Control System, Aeronautical Information System, Automated Message Handling System, Aeronautical Telecommunications Network Router, Global Navigation Satellite System monitoring and metrological systems.

The project's Package 2 includes the installation of an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Ground Station, En-route Radar (Secondary Surveillance Radar Mode-S), Terminal Radar (Airport Surveillance Radar/Secondary Surveillance Radar), VHF Terminal and Remote Control Air-Ground Communications facility, Microwave link and Very Small Aperture Terminal.

Package 3 of the project is up for bidding this year and slated for completion in 2019.

The CNS/ATM Systems Development Project was first conceptualized in 1994 in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Global Air Navigation Plan, and would replace the aging vital communications, surveillance, and air traffic control equipment at selected airports nationwide.

Loan agreement with JICA was signed in 1995 to finance this project for implementation in 2002 but was delayed until 2006. It was only in 2010 that the project was awarded to the winning bidder before it was stopped again for alleged irregularity in 2011. It was cleared to continue only in 2013.The project will be finally completed in June of 2017, 20 years thereafter.

7 comments:

  1. Hi, the news articles all state 10 radar cites but it seems the image does not show the SSRs at Laoag and Majic Cebu. Also the PSR (ASR-9) at Subic is not shown. Are these 3 radars no longer in use?

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  2. Sorry I wasn't clear about which image I was referring to: I meant the image marked as "Surveillance", it doesn't show the Laoag and Majic SSRs, and the Subic PSR. While in the image marked "Communications" it doesn't show any label "radar" for Subic, but instead only shows a VSAT and AMHS workstation.

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  3. Subic ASR-9 is off the grid as it is actually dead, meaning beyond economic repair. It is cheaper to procure new SSR than bringing it back to life. And having one in Subic is not cost efficient anymore as Clark was provided with ASR already so it will handle needs of Subic instead. En-route SSR still covers Laoag, Aparri, Zamboanga and of course Majic. At this time however Laoag cannot qualify yet for the ASR as there are few flights in the area.

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  4. For information..Pasuquin en-route radar (surveillance) was not anymore included on the project..it has been decided to transfer it to Laoag near the existing laoag radar site because of some issue..now, the construction of Laoag en-route radar is almost complete..

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. We did say Laoag because of the ROWA problem. Anyway, Pasuquin will still have a new and more powerful SSR with IFF capability from ELTA. It will also be operational next year together with Mindoro and Palawan.

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