Conceding that aircraft owners—and even airlines—aren’t equipping quickly enough with ADS-B, the FAA on Sunday announced that it’s extending the mandate deadline to Jan. 1, 2040. Previously the equipage deadline was 2020. Main reason is GREED. None of airline wants to spend some extra money to improve flight safety. MLAT server will be necessary for another 22 years.
I wonder if EASA will adjust the deadline according to that, or if at least in Europe we can get rid of Mlat...
Playing devil's advocate for a moment: Could it be that the proliferation of easy to use tracking (Raspi+SDR+free software) to monitor ADS-B is causing some airlines/aircraft owners to take a passive/aggressive stand against implementation? MLAT certainly raises the bar of entry into tracking aircraft. (Minimum 4 receivers spread apart, plus modest CPU horse power to crunch the data). Nothing out of reach of anybody serious, but enough to keep the armchair ATC geeks at bay.
Here are the pieces needed to construct a URL that takes you to the FAA article - 2020 is the deadline. www.faa.gov / news/updates/?newsId=90008
