Surveillance and air traffic management systems

To perform its activities for the provision of air traffic services (ATS), BULATSA operates six sites with collocated primary and secondary radars. These radars are the main driver to achieve a reliable air situation presentation on ATCOs HMI.

The following radar sites are installed in Republic of Bulgaria:

• Three Terminal Approach Radars (TARs) at airports in Sofia, Varna and Burgas. The installations consist of S-band primary STAR NG (STAR2000P in Sofia) type radar and a secondary RSM970S radar, manufactured by THALES. The full surveillance of the respective airports’ area of responsibility is assured by the above stated TARs. They also support the multi-radar tracking of aircraft in the controlled airspace.
• Three En-Route Radar Sites, located near the peak Cherni Vrah, Varbitsa Pass, and Shabla. Each site comprises of L-band primary radar TRAC2000N (TRAC NG in Shabla) and a monopulse secondary surveillance radar Mode S RSM970S, manufactured by THALES. These radar systems provide coverage over a big portion of the Balkan peninsula.

In the East and West part of Bulgaria, systems for independent cooperative surveillance (WAM) were implemented by SAAB Sensis Corp and ERA a.s. respectively.

Two Meteor 360AC meteorological radars provided by Leonardo (formally known as GEMATRONIK) are deployed in Sofia Air Traffic Control (ATC) Centre and Varna ATC Centre. They provide current meteorological information for air traffic management purposes and were modernised in 2010.

An Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS) with functions of surveillance and control of aircraft and ground vehicles on the manoeuvring area is in operation at Sofia Airport. The equipment was provided by Saab Technologies (formally known as HITT), ERA and Terma.

The air traffic management over the territory of the country is provided by utilizing modern systems for processing and displaying surveillance and flight information. In operational use at Sofia, Varna and Burgas ATC Centres is the air traffic management system SATCAS, provided by the company Leonardo (formally known as SELEX ES). Following the requirements of the National Programme for Implementation of the Single European Sky and the EU regulations on the tools and systems for provisioning of air traffic management services, BULATSA performed a modernization of its air traffic management system – SATCAS, which enabled the implementation of new functionalities, improvement of the system performance and increase of the level of safety in ATS.

In 2020 BULATSA put into operation a new CIMACT system for civil- military coordination developed by EUROCONTROL, which will be used as an emergency and independent system (Last Resort) for air traffic services, in case of complete failure of the main and reserve SATCAS systems, as well as in case of power failure. The CIMACT system is also used to improve civil-military coordination.