Satellite technologies are evolving and new modern and secured communications are being developed that offer new opportunities to meet current and emerging aviation requirements.
These new satellite communication services are now reaching sufficient technical maturity to be considered as strong candidates to enhance the current and future mobile data link applications as part of the Future Communications Infrastructure (FCI).
In order to support any potential upcoming decisions on the FCI deployment, a short series of awareness webinars on satellite technologies and related services for Air Traffic Management, will be organised by the SESAR Joint Undertaking, the European Space Agency (ESA), the SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM) and EUROCONTROL, together with panels of experts from International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO), International Air Transport Association (IATA), the European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP), air navigation service providers (ANSPs), European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Airspace Users and industry, including Inmarsat and avionics manufacturers.
IRIS, a SATCOM based, Data-Link Service (DLS), co-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), has reached a sufficient level of maturity to be considered as a strong candidate to complement current and future mobile data link services as part of the FCI. In this framework, the third webinar focused on Iris satellite-based data-link maturity and readiness for deployment aspects. In particular, it provided an overview of the technology maturity, IRIS up-coming pre-commercial flights, airlines perspective and certification aspects.