Thales and Aireon are extending their partnership though a new Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to ultimately implement a new approach to global air trafic surveillance. They aim to address the fact that over 70% of the world’s surface is still not covered by traditional surveillance platforms, like primary or secondary radars.

Deployment of the 75 Iridium NEXT satellites that carry the Aireon payloads was successfully completed in January.

The MoA aims to position space-based ADS-B data into the Thales aviation data platform ECOSystem to support applications such as Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM), Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) and UAS Traffic Management (UTM). The MoA expands on an agreement executed by the parties in 2015 which established a framework for testing and validation of data integration into the Thales TopSky-ATC air traffic management system.

The partnership’s long-term aim is to create an air traffic surveillance system that will cover oceanic, polar and remote regions, as well as augmenting existing ground-based systems.

Thales will focus on ensuring customers can integrate and use Aireon data using Thales’ know-how in digital technologies to process the considerable volume of data at their disposal for more accurate airspace modelling.

Aireon has also teamed with FlightAware to create GlobalBeacon, which combines FlightAware’s data processing platform and web interface with Aireon’s space-based ADS-B data, for a cost-effective solution to help meet the ICAO Global Aeronautical Distress Safety System (GADSS) standards.

Airbus announced a strategic partnership with Aireon as part of its AirSense analystics solution in August 2018.