The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has issued the first Design or Production Organisation approval of equipment made for Air Traffic Management and Air Navigation (ATM/ANS) services,
The approval was awarded to Micro Elektronische Producten (MEP), a company which designs and produces air-ground voice communication systems for Air Traffic Control (ATC) services.
The single European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) approval is valid across the entire EU market and is part of a move towards harmonising air traffic management and navigation equipment across the continent.
Jesper Rasmussen, flight standards director at EASA said, “This approval is a first step on the way to a more modern and harmonised ATM network in Europe.
“Europe is strong in producing ATM equipment and this new approval system makes it easier for the service providers to adopt solutions already proven as safe in real operations. Innovation also becomes easier, as the approval of an organisation comes with the privilege to improve existing solutions without needing a new full certification.
“We expect many manufacturers to follow in their footsteps.”
To achieve the approval, MEP successfully demonstrated compliance with the applicable requirements of Regulations (EU) 2023/1769 and 2023/1768. Compliance was verified by the EASA team during the initial approval investigation conducted over the last 12 months.
The approval as Design or Production Organisation (DPO) entitles organisations to specific design or production privileges. They can apply for certification of certain air traffic management/ air navigation servies (ATM/ANS) equipment, classify changes as major or minor, and make these changes to certain ATM/ANS equipment.
It also enables DPOs to issue declarations of design compliance and issue EASA release forms that allows equipment to be delivered to ANSPs for installation. This means less work for the ANSP because they can rely more directly upon the work done by the approved DPO when making changes to ANSP systems.
Werner van Eck, CEO of MEP said, “This is the result and recognition of all the hard work of our MEP project team, receiving great support from the EASA team over the last 12 months. MEP is committed to safety in Air Traffic Control in general and voice communication systems in particular. I am convinced that this approval will further improve cooperation with our customers.”
EASA’s extended remit resulted from the publication of the new regulatory framework on the conformity assessment of ATM/ANS equipment. The framework introduced several new concepts such as:
EASA as a common source of technical specifications for the certification or declaration of ATM/ANS equipment;
a single source of equipment attestations that are valid for the entire EU market; and
a single compliance demonstration for manufacturers (DPO approval).
These concepts were designed to enable cost-efficiency, minimise implementation issues, and decrease efforts on the part of ANSPs, national certification authorities, and manufacturers, without compromising flexibility, innovation or safety.