Avinor has completed the installation of about 200 wide-area multilateration (WAM) antennas on mountaintops and at airports across Norway, to replace about half of the country’s conventional radars.
Defense and security company Saab provided the technology for Avinor’s WAM project. The WAM technology is designed to give a better picture of the airspace. While conventional radars look outward and upward, the WAM antennas also give a picture downward. Given Norway’s topography with numerous fjords and valleys, the WAM technology makes it possible for pilots and air traffic services to improve collaboration. This is useful in search and rescue missions, for example, and increases the safety level in Norwegian aviation.
Jeff Thompson, ATM safety and efficiency program manager at Saab, said, “Norway has a very challenging topography, and to ensure a good picture of the airspace for Avinor we have installed a large number of antennas there. This makes the project one of the world’s largest and most complex of its kind.”
Ellen Lystad, director of new technology development within air navigation at Avinor, said, “There are about 600,000 flight movements across Norway every year. The new WAM technology is therefore crucial to Avinor delivering safe, stable and efficient operations.”
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