Civil-military cooperation in aviation

POWERED BY THE

Civil-Military Cooperation Division and the Network Manager

Enhancing ATM performance while safeguarding national security and defence needs.

Civil-military cooperation in aviation

About

We are a civil-military organisation, providing a unique platform for military and civil-military cooperation in aviation. We apply our technical knowhow and expertise to enhancing airspace capacity, flight efficiency, military mission effectiveness and civil-military interoperability with reduced costs in a secure Single pan-European Sky.

Our objective is to support our Member States and to cooperate with European and international organisations to improve network performance by balancing the needs of civil aviation with those of national security and defence.

Stay up to date with the latest civil-military developments by following our @eurocontrolCMC twitter feed .

Focus

One key priority for us is the flexible use of airspace (FUA) and airspace management (ASM) in the spirit of civil-military collaborative decision-making (CDM), allowing airspace users to share Europe’s airspace efficiently at all times.

Working closely with the EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM) teams, we develop and maintain tangible solutions for improving strategic, pretactical and tactical ASM processes. We do this using:

  • our local and sub-regional airspace management support system (LARA);
  • a civil-military aviation coordination tool (CIMACT);
  • the pan-European repository of information supporting civil-military key performance indications (PRISMIL);
  • improved OAT flight plans (iOAT FPLs).

The Military Liaison Officer (MILO) function in the NM Operations Centre supports the CDM processes in FUA and ASM. Currently, we are working on enhancing and harmonising FUA, moving from a national to a network perspective, while using available system support. We are also focussing on advanced FUA in SESAR, automating many functions and processes.

Aviation is being modernised with new technologies and higher levels of automation and connectivity.

Civil-military communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS) infrastructure and interoperability are fundamental in addressing today’s capacity and performance challenges.

We offer specific civil-military CNS technical expertise for improving civil-military CNS interoperability and integrating military requirements in all CNS developments, including rulemaking, research and deployment.

We develop technical solutions to optimise airborne equipage and infrastructure to seamlessly accommodate military flights at reduced cost.

Our work covers a wide range of CNS, spectrum and data processing domains where civil-military coordination is required.In particular, we progress technical work to address civil-military interoperability challenges in important CNS domains.

This work includes: ground communications, deployment of data link services, performance based navigation, the reutilisation of GNSS restricted signals for military aircraft, RVSM monitoring for State aircraft, assessing the impact of Mode S and ADS-B on military operators, meeting military requirements related to aeronautical information management (AIM) and system wide information management (SWIM).

Doing all this requires dual use CNS concepts and performance-based certification (PBC) or performance equivalence for military aircraft.

In addition, we cooperate with NM in the management of scarce resources, like transponder codes and radio frequencies.

Civil-military cooperation and coordination is part of the SESAR initiative and the European ATM Master Plan.

Our research is conducted according to the principles of:

  • interoperability;
  • information sharing;
  • collaborative decision-making;
  • performance equivalence.

Throughout our participation in SESAR, we contribute to the development and validation of the following concepts:

  • Wing operational centre (WOC);
  • Advanced flexible use of airspace (AFUA) including  management of variable profile area (VPA), dynamic airspace configuration (DAC) and dynamic mobile area (DMA);
  • Mission trajectory (MT) based on the improved OAT FPL integrating static and VPA types of ARES.

We contribute to validation of the processes and tool prototypes associated with the allocation of DMA throughout integrated ASM-ATFCM planning processes in DAC.

We have developed a civil-military collaborative decision-making (CDM) process to guarantee the effectiveness of military missions, whilst contributing to ATM performance targets (e.g. capacity, operational efficiency and flexibility) within the SESAR environment. 

Following the results obtained in validations, the stakeholders involved including military technical experts participating through MEPS arrangements are invited to revise the concepts of MT and AFUA.

We are developing the SWIM green profile to enhance secure civil-military connectivity with civil data exchange systems, as well as CNS solutions to optimise the reuse of existing military capabilities and to reduce the need for exemptions.

We contribute towards the development and integration of technologies and resources for a single operating environment, meeting all performance criteria for military and civil users.

We define security baselines for today’s ATM environment and play a part in keeping ATM systems secure from threats and vulnerabilities. We also contribute to civil aviation security, national security, defence and law enforcement.

We are responsible for enhancing ATM security and provide civil-military coordination on all relevant ATM-security (airspace, aviation and related cyber/InfoSec) issues in close consultation with Member States, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) and, as required, the European Commission and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

We coordinate with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) through the ATM Security Coordinating Group (NEASCOG). We support international collaboration and help with ATM security implementation and training to States, stakeholders and international organisations.

Enhanced coordination and cooperation on regional, EU and international levels are EUROCONTROL’s key priorities in improving network performance. In this regard, we support ICAO in the global implementation of civil-military cooperation in airspace management and the flexible use of airspace, including contributions to the GANP (Global Navigation Plan) and ASBUs (Aviation System Block Upgrade) to enhance global civil-military interoperability.

We cooperate with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Defence Agency (EDA) on military and civil-military matters, according to established working arrangements.

Individual support is also made available to States and stakeholders to implement key civil-military coordination initiatives aimed at increasing airspace capacity, flight efficiency and military mission effectiveness in Europe.

We also contribute upon request to supporting Single European Sky implementation and SESAR deployment, as well as EASA rulemaking. In cooperation with our military partners, we analyse potential impacts on the military.

The Civil-Military Stakeholder Committee (CMSC), the Military ATM Board (MAB) and other working groups, such as the NATO-EUROCONTROL ATM Security Coordinating Group (NEASCOG), the Military Harmonisation Group (MilHaG), the Civil-Military CNS Focus Group (CNS-FG) and the Military Engagement Plan for SESAR (MEPS) are platforms for Member State/stakeholder consultations.

Products

8.33 kHz implementation support

AFUA

Advanced flexible use of airspace

ACAS|TCAS

Airborne collision avoidance system

ASM SWIM

Datalink

Dual use CNS

Dual use communication, navigation and surveillance approach

Tools

CIMACT

Civil-military air traffic management coordination tool

PRISMIL-CURA

Civil-Military Post-Operational Interactive Reporting Dashboard

EDQ

External data quality tool

FUA Toolkit

Flexible use of airspace toolkit

LARA

Local and sub-regional airspace management support system

Training courses and e-learning modules

Our courses focus on the improvement of European ATM efficiency for the benefit of civil/military aerial needs and on the development of viable solutions to support military ATM/CNS performance and interoperability.

Governance

Our governance bodies are the Civil-Military Stakeholder Committee (CMSC) and the Military ATM Board (MAB). For more information on their activities and responsibilities, see our advisory and consultative groups section.

Latest highlights

Christophe Vivier
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New military technologies will require ATM modernisation to manage airspace more dynamically, safely and efficiently

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New entrants drive innovations in civil and military airspace management operations

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Preparing for Summer 2024: more traffic, disruptive weather but deeper and more effective collaboration

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Increased network capacity, better civil-military coordination and more efficient Air Mobility through iOAT, the improved Operational Air Traffic flight plan

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“Europe for Aviation” team up for Airspace World 2024

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EUROCONTROL’s LARA airspace management tool notches up two major triumphs