When representatives from every world nation and every civil aviation organization gather at the triennial ICAO Assembly, topics on the agenda include current progress and issues as well as future challenges and potential solutions. For the technical commission, the major topics consisted of international progress with aviation system block upgrades (ASBU), which are designed to bring a harmonized approach to worldwide air traffic management; the development and application of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), with similar emphasis on harmonized operations; and the continuing actions toward a truly international “just culture” that separates accident investigations from legal proceedings.
ICAO introduced aviation system block upgrades (ASBU) in 2011 as a means of modernizing and standardizing world aviation’s ground and airborne communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS) systems and procedures, where unique equipage would no longer be required, and legacy systems replaced. Individual blocks were assigned to each nation, with each block consisting of several modules specifying CNS equipage levels of different cost and complexity, depending on that nation’s traffic demands and the maturity of its aviation infrastructure.
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