SESAR aims to improve Europe's air traffic management with precision time-tracking

The EU and Eurocontrol, the inter-governmental agency for aviation navigation, have a major research and action plan under way to boost the operational efficiency of all civil and military aircraft moving across Europe's skies - by adding precision time-tracking of all air assets as the fourth dimension to today's air traffic management.

However, Europe's military forces doubt the project's merits and, above all, are concerned about the cost. Eurocontrol authorities admit they have not conferred enough with Europe's military air force and air traffic controller (ATC) communities, so they now plan to launch a new round of consultations in early 2009 in hopes of persuading them to back the plan.

The Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) is a public-private research and development (R&D) partnership jointly funded by the European Commission and Eurocontrol's 39 member countries. It was officially launched on 8 December, with 15 major industrial companies standing ready to join the undertaking.

SESAR aims to link all air assets together via common data-exchange networks to form a moving, real-time common operational picture of all assets at all times. Such a vast capability would enable civil aviation authorities to shorten en-route separation distances between aircraft, boosting efficiency by squeezing more aircraft into the same space. 207 of 648 words