scope:

This document reflects the joint FAA and industry view of how the air traffic management system will operate in three timefrarnes: near-term, mid-term, and far-term or mature state. For each concept described, the respective roles and responsibilities of the participants in that concept are described. Where appropriate, operational scenarios are used to better illustrate the concept and more easily convey the roles that the various participants will have to play.

This document will be used by both the FAA and the user co=unity to coordinate activities related to the development and implementation of air traffic services and operational capabilities within the NAS. This document will be updated as necessary to reflect changes in FAA and user strategy. As rigorous concept evaluation and validation is conducted, this document will be modified to reflect the results of those efforts to provide a more detailed definition and analysis of the concepts.

In this document, the term "Service Provider" is used generically to refer to any air traffic service employee or DoD member who provides separation assurance, traffic management, infrastructure management, aViatIOn information, navigation, landing, airspace management, search and rescue, or aviation assistance services for NAS users. The terms "user" and "NAS user" refer to any customer that uses the air traffic system, including air carriers, general aviation (GA), commercial space transportation providers, and Department of Defense (DoD) aviation and space. These customers may be differentiated by representation through Flight Operations Centers (FOCs) that provide any or all of the flight planning, dispatch, fleet management, or DoD tactical air control functions that support various user operations in the NAS. The Airline Operations Centers (AOCs) utilized today by many air carriers are an example ofthe FOCs that will be utilized by a wide range of air carrier, general aviation, commercial space transportation, and DoD operators in the future.

Before this operational concept moves from the concept stage to the implementation stage, the need exists for further development and validation of Free Flight enhancing procedures and technologies, which would, among other things, emphasize human factors considerations. Such validation testing would serve to build a consensus among users and between users and service providers. It is also of paramount importance that prior to operational implementation of any concepts described herein, required safety studies be conducted, and joint gove=ent and industry agreement on certification criteria and standards be established. Finally, adequate backup and security procedures must be defmed to address the failure and vulnerability of enabling technologies.

Uses of this document include:

• FAA Air Traffic Service (AA T) and FAA Airway Facilities Service (AAF) will use this document as a source to define NAS operational needs and to guide improvements in NAS infrastructure management.

• FAA Air Traffic Service Requirements Service (ARS) will use this document as a source to define requirements and influence investment decisions.

• FAA Aircraft Certification Service (AIR) and FAA Flight Standards Service (AFS) will use this document as a source to develop certification and regulation guidelines, to support certification of new systems, and to develop standards to implement the shared infrastructure of the future.

• FAA Office for System Engineering and Development (ASD) will use this document as a source to define the NAS architecture.

• FAA Office for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) will use this document as a resource to help plan, develop, and coordinate activities related to commercial space transportation operations in the NAS.

• DoD will use this document to identify implementations that may impact DOT and DoD documents.

• Industry will use the document for internal pla.nnillg purposes for fleet development, training procedures, space launch planning, etc.