Eurocontrol and European Defence Agency discuss PRS

07 March 2011

Pascal Barret © Peter Gutierrez

The Galileo Public Regulated Service or 'PRS' is designed to serve the needs of civilian users, but it could also be used for defence purposes within the Member States. At a recent meeting of the EU-funded PROGRESS project in Brussels, officials from Eurocontrol and the European Defence Agency (EDA) discussed future prospects for this robust and encrypted Galileo service.

"We must be concerned with both civil and defence aviation," said Eurocontrol's Pascal Barret. "All flights will be encompassed under the Europe's new Air Traffic Management (ATM) system, which is being developed under the SESAR programme. All of us consider GNSS to be a major enabler of more efficient and safer air transport, with our two preferred constellations being GPS and Galileo."

SESAR, Barret acknowledged, is often seen as a programme for civil aviation, with its overarching goals being improvement of efficiency and capacity, of safety and environmental performance. "But many of you will be thinking that these are not exactly the military's main sorts of concerns," he said, "but if we do not include defence aviation within the SESAR scheme, then all will be jeopardised."

The Progress project has stimulated interest in the PRS © Peter Gutierrez

Eurocontrol's Dominique Colin said, "Military pilots train over European airspace, so it is obvious, if our goal is to ensure safety, that defence flights must be covered by the European Air Traffic Control system. This means all flights, both civil and military, must conform to certain standards, and that is also why the work being undertaken by the PROGRES project to establish standards for PRS is so important to us.

Keeping it simple, keeping it standard

As it maps out the details of the future ATM system, SESAR now assumes all state aircraft will be dual-constellation and PRS-equipped, explained Barret. "A key concern is that this does not result in any additional confusion in the cockpit, caused by the need for multiple GNSS receivers, for example. So the work of standardisation and integration of multiple systems is a priority."

Speaking on behalf of the EDA, Gérard La Pierre agreed. "Our research shows that many European Member States now consider the PRS as an important tool for all types of aviation," he said, "but we also have concerns about new equipment and additional receivers."

Though obstacles remain, interested parties at the PROGRESS meeting seemed to agree that the PRS will be an important new tool for both civil and defence aviation, but there is still work to be done. "The military, especially the pilots," said La Pierre, "will want to know why they need this new system. They are already used to working with GPS, so the PRS will have to be fully interoperable and it will have to demonstrate very clearly a real added value. So there remains a lot to be done in terms of explaining and 'selling' the PRS to all potential users."

Gérard La Pierre © Peter Gutierrez

More information:

• The Progress Workshop Programme
• Galileo Programme Status
• Public Regulated Service
• Setting up a Standardization Framework for PRS
  
• PRS Receiver initial Specifications
• PRS Receiver Security Requirements
• Security Constraints and Certification
• Safety Certification Recommendations
• FDC - Way Forward
• Issues at stake wrt State Aircrafts