MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax-AVN) - A federal aeronavigation system will be created in Russia through comprehensive restructuring of the Unified Air Traffic Control System, an official of the Russian interdepartmental commission on airspace use told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
"Comprehensive upgrade and restructuring of the national Unified Air Traffic Control System is required at the moment. The optimal way is to create a federal aeronavigation system fully meeting requirements to national security and safety of air traffic," the official said.
Taking into account present-day international situation and strategic meaning of the federal aeronavigation system for the country's security, it is necessary to launch the creation of such system as soon as possible, he stressed.
"The Russian interdepartmental commission on airspace use and control headed by the defense minister or Armed Forces chief-of-staff should become the main coordination body of the federal aeronavigation system. The duties of the existing interdepartmental commission on airspace use and central interdepartmental commission of the federal airspace reconnaissance and control system should be assigned to this interdepartmental commission," the official said.
The commission's board will meet on Thursday to discuss the creation of the federal aeronavigation system, he added.
According to experts, the Unified Air Traffic Control System, being a two-departmental system bringing together the Defense Ministry and Transportation Ministry, does not ensure coordinated development of its military and civil subsystems, which may interrupt its functioning in crisis situations and during transition from peacetime to martial law.