Ability To Restore ATC Key In Recovery Efforts After An Emergency

After a disaster, the aviation industry is almost always part of the immediate response. When air traffic control (ATC) infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, portable systems can be quickly deployed – even in remote regions.

Raytheon says its Mobile Air Traffic Control (MATC) is just such a system. Rapidly deployable, it can be transported anywhere in the world by land, sea or air and made operational within hours by a minimal number of people. MATC provides critical air traffic services through primary and secondary ATC radars integrated with quick set-up deployable radar antenna and secure, networked data communications.

“Transportable air traffic management systems are vital to the humanitarian effort – to enable urgent deliveries of resources and aid by air and to ensure the safety of first responders,” said Stephen DuMont, Raytheon’s director for International Air Traffic Management.

The system includes three shelters that transport and house the radar, communications and operations equipment, enabling surveillance, air-to-ground and ground-to-ground communications, and air traffic control. In the mobile configuration, the operators use equipment identical to what they use in fixed base systems.

Deployable air traffic systems have both civil and military applications. “As the military deploys our best and bravest, a modern transportable ATC system that has all the advanced functionality of the systems we install at fixed locations is a vital benefit to the warfighter,” explained DuMont.

FMI: www.raytheon.com