Integrated Air Surveillance Concept of Operations - Joint Planning ...

Integrated Air Surveillance Concept of Operations
Preface
The United States Government conducts air surveillance operations to encourage and allow
maximum appropriate use of United States airspace and to maintain the safety, security and
defense of the homeland. Given the complexity of the National Airspace System (NAS), and the
ever increasing volume of air traffic, meeting these objectives is a multi-agency responsibility.
The Surveillance Mission Partners - the Departments of Transportation, Defense, Homeland
Security and Commerce, 1 supported by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence - all
have vital roles to play. Better integration of the surveillance mission partners’ operations and
systems is needed to ensure that they can continue to carry out their respective missions
effectively. Integrated air surveillance is defined as the integration of information from
cooperative and non-cooperative surveillance systems to create a user-defined operational
picture, from common information, of real or near-real time situation for safety, security, and
efficiency. 2
In December 2008, participants at the Interagency Surveillance Summit 3 , hosted by the Deputy
Secretary of Homeland Security, requested development of an Integrated Air Surveillance
Concept of Operations (IS ConOps) drawn from existing ConOps-related documents, an initial
Integrated Surveillance Enterprise Architecture (ISEA) and a governance recommendation. The
Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) Joint Planning and Development Office
(JPDO) was tasked to prepare those products.
In July 2010, the JPDO’s oversight body, the Senior Policy Committee 4 (SPC), directed that the
recommended governance mechanism and work plan be put into action and that the IS ConOps
be updated with the specific intent of resolving the outstanding issues that had prevented total
concurrence in draft version 3.0.
This update to the IS ConOps identifies shared requirements for joint capabilities and changes
needed to effect a transition from today’s evolving collaborative environments to a fully and
deliberately integrated, interagency air surveillance ―system of systems‖. Key attributes of the
NextGen strategy to improve air surveillance capabilities include:
Leveraging existing surveillance assets to provide optimal, persistent, wide area
surveillance coverage of key sectors of the United States airspace and approaches, with
1 Integrated Surveillance for the Next Generation Air Transportation System: Final Report of the Integrated
Surveillance Study Team, October 31, 2008.
2 Final Report of the Integrated Surveillance Study Team, October 31, 2008.
3 Summit attendees included senior leaders from the FAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
JPDO, DHS, the United States Air Force, NORAD-NORTHCOM, National Guard Bureau, ODNI, Air Force North,
and the National Security Staff.
4 The Senior Policy Committee is chaired by the Secretary of Transportation and includes the Secretary of
Homeland Security, the FAA Administrator, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, the
Secretary of Commerce, the NASA Administrator, the Secretary of the United States Air Force, and the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence (ex-officio).
November 2011
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