As
CDN ATC has said, some of this thread makes uncomfortable reading.
All widebody aircraft are initially equipped with FANS 1/A (Future Air Navigation System [well it was future in 1980]). FANS 1/A provides for ACARS links to FOC, Automated Dependent Surveillance - Contract (ADS-C) to up to 5 recipients both FOC and ATC- who can contract with the aircraft electronics what they want to be sent and when- without the crew knowing. And of course FANS 1/A provides Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC) which is a relatively primitive set of control commands and responses over datalink.
ADS-C is normally set to either 4 minute or 10 minute reporting intervals depending on the RNP requirement of the route, or is set to just report at filed waypoints and level changes i.e. top/bottom of climbs and descents. ADS-C will normally provide aircraft ID, altitude, ground speed, Mach no, GPS position and time and other information. INMARSAT has recently announced that use of ADS-C will be
FREE for tracking aircraft. INMARSAT is a geostationary set of satellites which have been updated and provide up to 250Kbs for both data and voice over IP - see Swift Broadband
SwiftBroadband - Inmarsat Iridium Next is a low earth orbit constellation that gives complete coverage including the poles. ADS-C can be transmitted in the same way over Iridium with each aircraft having a dedicated connection-oriented link (effectively the Iridium satellites are like orbiting cellphone base stations. Iridium next can support burst data up to 512Kbs up and 1.5Mbs down
https://www.iridium.com/About/Iridiu...echnology.aspx
Now neither of these systems would support continual streaming of FOQA or DFDR/CVR data but they could be triggered to accept streamed data in an emergency.
There are other systems such as Outerlink, used by helicopters in the Gulf of Mexico (and trucks in North America), that effectively receives a position report and other information every 2 minutes or so for transmission to the FOC, and a continuous stream of position reports if the pilot selects emergency.
Iridium is also hosting a system called AIREON which is an independent payload on the Iridium Next satellite constellation that will receive ADS-B transmissions from aircraft. ADS-B Out is being mandated in most regions of the world and it is expected that at least in the more sparely flown areas AIREON will be able to provide ADS-B surveillance cover otherwise unavailable to ATC/FOC.
It can be seen therefore that there are sufficient enablers being put into the space segment that tracking an aircraft and getting a compressed 'important issues' data stream is completely possible at little cost. The basic tracking is now available
FREE and all aircraft either have the capability or can have it cheaply retrofitted. ADS-C and ADS-B are mandated for many FIR/UIRs.