Thales Awarded Contract for the Supply of CASS by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Thales has been awarded a contract by the Congolese Ministry of Transport for the supply, installation and commissioning of an Air Traffic Management/ Air Traffic Control surveillance system. It will be the first Air Traffic Control system to cover one of the largest African continental airspaces.

Thales’s turnkey solution will include a latest-generation EUROCAT control centre, Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) stations in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Buta, Mbandaka and llebo and a Digital-Automatic Terminal Information Station (D-ATIS) system.

EUROCAT is a modular system that controls traffic in continental en route, terminal approach, transcontinental and oceanic airspace. ADS-B is an emerging technology that allows aircraft to periodically broadcast GPS position, altitude, speed and identity information. The broadcast information may be received and processed by other aircraft or ground stations for use in improved situational awareness, conflict avoidance and airspace management.

Thales will also provide a simulator as well as training sessions to enable RVA (Régie des Voies Aériennes), DRC’s Air Navigation Services Provider, to respond to the increasing need of highly skilled air traffic controllers. This comprehensive ATC systemwill allow them to focus on managing the air situation while coping with more intense domestic traffic flows as well as growing continental traffic volumes.

“Thales is proud of being associated with the country’s ambitious transport modernisation programme. We believe that Thales’s solutions will offer significant benefits to the controllers providing them a complete set of latest-generation surveillance tools”, says Cédric Costes, Thales VP, in charge of Africa.