Nextgen airspace security capability requirements for monitoring security airspaces

As part of its national defense and homeland security authorities and responsibilities, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) works with its security mission partners to implement various security measures, including restricting operations in specific airspace volumes. These security airspaces have associated access requirements that result in varying impacts on different National Airspace System (NAS) civil user populations. Currently, the process for monitoring compliance with various security measures is highly manual, and these restricted airspaces are for the most part not included in automated flight planning systems. This paper describes current operations related to Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs), summarizes the future airspace security concepts, and proposes how the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) capabilities may improve the flight planning process to take into account airspace security constraints, as well as potential automation capabilities that monitor for and detect security threats.