Federal Aviation Administration Awards Five-year Surface Surveillance Contract to Saab Sensis

The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded Saab Sensis, a subsidiary of Saab, a Sweden-based military defence and civil security company, a five-year contract for the Airport Surface Surveillance Capability (ASSC) program.

The contract, worth $119 million, requires Saab Sensis to deploy several ASSC-based technologies in nine airports across USA. The ASSC program will enable improved surface situational awareness and prior warning of runway incursions for improving efficiency and safety features in the nine sites. Each deployment will include the Saab Sensis Multilateration technology, air traffic controller working positions, playback/recording functionality as well as safety logic conflict detection and alerting software. Furthermore, ASSC will process Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) information for a fused, single view of the taxiways and runways of the airport. The flexibility offered by the ASSC system architecture will provide surface safety enhancements at the airports, including the Runway Status Lights.

The nine US airports that will receive ASSC are the San Francisco International Airport, California; Pittsburgh International Airport, Pennsylvania; Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Alaska;Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Kentucky; Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland; Cleveland Hopkins Airport, Ohio; Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, Louisianaand the Kansas City International Airport, Missouri and the Portland International Airport, Oregon.

The Vice President of Saab Sensis, Ken Kaminski stated that through the ASSC project, Saab Sensis will develop the Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X (ASDE-X) program to further improve the surface safety at the airports. The ASSC system will employ technologies that have been certified for deployment in the National Airspace System.

In the past, Saab Sensis has deployed ASDE-X, the runway situational awareness system developed for the Federal Aviation Administration in 35 major airports located in the USA.