Air traffic control RAMS costs

The largest percentage of costs incurred during the life cycle of a system are the operational and support costs. There are a number of ways that NATS could use to lower the operation and support (O&S) costs incurred for it´s new radar systems while maintaining the required service availability. The reduction of the O&S costs, it is planned, will be based on the safety case availability requirements on the service provided rather than the equipment. The use of commercial off the shelf (COTS) equipment by NATS represents a change in thinking within the organisation as it tries to reduce the O&S cost elements of the product lifecycle. With better reliability and availability of the new systems the probability of a failure leading to a total system loss, compared to that of the existing systems, is reduced. The results of the investigations made by NATS into the reduction of the support costs for the radar site services (RSS) programme are now being realised and are at present being fed into the life cycle costing for each support philosophy