2025 Agenda

Digitalisation promises measurable gains in safety, efficiency, and lifecycle traceability across Air Traffic Management (ATM), particularly in the Communication Navigation Surveillance (CNS) domain. Yet the transition from analogue to digital—preceded by decades of digitisation—has also introduced an unintentional capability gap in the CNS technical workforce.
While modern systems deliver higher reliability, signal processing performance, and comprehensive Built In Test Equipment (BITE), sensor embedded monitoring alone cannot assure performance across the full coverage volume or under varying environmental conditions.
This discussion highlights the need for a harmonised, measurement driven approach that couples organisation wide digitalisation with independent performance monitoring, standardized methodologies, and renewed fundamentals based training. Drawing on operational practice and standards (e.g., ICAO Doc 8071 and ATSEP guidance), we show how global statistics (e.g., Pd and azimuth bias) can mask local performance shortfalls that directly affect separation minima. We outline a framework that integrates unified measurement and analysis toolsets from product qualification, factory testing, commissioning and through life monitoring, with centralized, time stamped data for traceability, multi-stakeholder support, and a proactive and predictive maintenance regime.
Case examples using Intersoft Electronics Surveillance Monitoring System (SMS) and Radar Analysis Support System (RASS) illustrate how sensor systems, including legacy, can be performance tracked and re-baselined to meet modern performance targets, and how emerging techniques (e.g., drone based measurements) can accelerate compliance while reducing cost.
For the industry, a standardised measurement and enhanced training framework—aligned to international standards—can strengthen safety assurance, restore and uplift knowledge, and ensure that digitalisation enhances, rather than further erodes, CNS technical expertise.