The role of civil-military cooperation in the safe and optimal use of airspace

Aviation contributes significantly to State’ economy and requires stable and secure environment. Effective civil-military cooperation in air traffic management (ATM) will allow civil aviation to flourish and military aviation to perform their required missions. Pursuant to Article 3 d) of the Chicago Convention, ICAO urges States to consider the safety of navigation of civil aircraft when issuing regulations for their state aircraft. In 2021, ICAO published the Manual on Civil and Military Cooperation in ATM (Doc 10088) to replace Circular 330 as a follow-up of Appendix I of Resolution A40-4. It provides comprehensive guidance to States wishing to implement or improve civil-military cooperation for ATM, for the safe and optimal use of the airspace by both parties.

Though civil and military operations differ in nature and in purpose, both types of operations take place in a single continuum of airspace and, therefore, civil aviation and military stakeholders need to cooperate to ensure their mutual safety. Additionally, the modernization of ATM towards greater information flows and operational flexibility creates a need to enhance civil-military cooperation and coordination.

Given that the Asia/Pacific region is expecting drastic growth in the coming years, civil-military cooperation remains one of the highest priority items in the Asia/Pacific region, as evidenced in the APAC Seamless ANS Plan. Since the Region hasn’t achieved mature civil-military cooperation in the regards of high-level civil-military cooperation framework, Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA) through 3-level Airspace Management (ASM), civil-military system interoperability and integration etc., continuous efforts devoted by both the States and ICAO to this area is considered essential.

ICAO Asia/Pacific Regional Sub Office (RSO) is planning to hold a two-day Civil- Military Cooperation in ATM (FUA) webinar in the coming months. The audience for this webinar will come from the civil and military networks, including, but not limited to, civil aviation regulators, ANSPs, airspace designers and managers, air traffic controllers, airline operators, and officers of military authority, military air traffic controllers, etc.

The objectives of the Webinar will be to:

• help the States in the Region get updated information and to provide practical guidance on the ICAO documents related to civil-military cooperation and FUA
• share experiences and challenges from the States in the Region; and
• address best practices on enhancing civil-military cooperation and FUA implementation through case study by experts from other regions

The Webinar will focus on key points related to the construction of a mature three-level ASM framework with the FUA concept, including but not limited to: the establishment of joint civil-military ASM entity and working procedures, airspace structure design principles and methods, key performance indicators (KPI) for assessment etc. Experts engaged in daily operations will also be invited to share their first-hand experiences and perspectives in the regard of better civil-military cooperation and FUA implementation.

Speakers interested in making a presentation related to the topics of this webinar are encouraged to contact the APAC Regional Sub Office for more information. If you are interested in making a presentation on the topic of Civil-Military cooperation, please feel free to contact the ICAO APAC RSO as well.