EES awarded FAA Data Communications (Data Comm) Integrated Services (DCIS) Contract

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded the Data Communications (Data Comm) Integrated Services (DCIS) contract to Enterprise Engineering Services LLC (EES). 

The Data Comm Program is a critically important next step for improving air safety, reducing delays, increasing fuel savings, improving the environment, and providing the foundation for NextGen operations.  The introduction of data communications between the FAA’s air traffic control functions and carrier aircraft represents a key phase of the transition from the current decades old analog voice system to a predominantly digital mode of communication. The Data Comm System supports the NextGen vision by providing air traffic service (ATS) data transmissions directly to pilots via aircraft avionics systems.  This ATS data communications capability enables more efficient procedures and flight profiles through services such as revised departure clearances, automation of routine clearances, Traffic Flow Management reroutes, automated transfer of communications, optimized profile descents, and trajectory-based operations.  These services contribute to evolving air traffic control from short-term tactical operations to the strategic managements of flights from gate-to-gate.
 
As used herein, the Data Comm System is the end-to-end system from the air traffic controller position to the pilots data display system in the aircraft.  The Data Comm System explicitly includes FAA automation and intermediate systems in the En Route, Tower, and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) domains, FAA supplied telecommunications service, the Data Communications Network Service, (DCNS), and the aircraft avionics suite.