This proposal is for a Temporary change to the notified airspace design, for which a scaled airspace change process applies and a change level is not applicable.
Version 2.0 - AQUILA - SW ACP STATEMENT OF NEED – (7 July 2020).
Plymouth Military Radar (Royal Navy) provide Air Traffic Services (ATS) to civil and military traffic in The South Coast Exercise Areas (SCXA's) and the surrounding airspace utilising radar feeds from Wembury Point and Portland, amongst other sites. To achieve future Regulatory Compliance and improve system performance and availability, the Wembury and Portland surveillance equipment is due to undergo planned replacement and upgrade work. During this work there will be necessary periods of Primary Surveillance Radar (PSR) unavailability.
The impact of PSR unavailability on the air-picture currently provided is that any non-transponding traffic entering the Danger Areas or operating within the CLASS G airspace between the SCXA’s will no longer be visible to controllers when using Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) data only. Due to the nature of the airspace and the activity in the areas concerned it is essential that the safety of the military and General Aviation (GA) community is preserved by enhancing the situational awareness available to the controllers at Plymouth Military during the PSR outages. This requirement can be addressed through the introduction of Temporary Airspace Changes which will allow all airspace users to benefit from enhanced situational awareness to supplement SSR surveillance when operating within the existing Plymouth and Portland Danger Area blocks or transiting through the Class G airspace which lies between them (to the south east of Start Point).
Any measures incorporated in the design of the Temporary Changes will be proportionate to meet the above needs and applied flexibly so as to minimise any potential inconvenience to airspace users.
The proposed airspace change will not conflict with the Airspace Modernisation Strategy.
The equipment upgrade activity in the South West forms part of a much larger programme of work and as a result the scheduling may be subject to change.
