I agree with you on this, and for me, navigation and safety systems that utilise mapping and terrain data represent a major step forward which I suspect will soon be followed by better synthetic vision systems using similar data.
Having improved mapping and terrain (in the desert things move!) information is obviously a key input too.
hugel
EGPWS is tops as it targets a natural hazard of flight – terrain. Whereas systems such as ACAS have become a necessity due to increasing traffic and commercial pressures on the industry.
Anyone care to estimate the number of lives saved by EGPWS? Whatever the number I doubt if any other avionic system can match the value.