Still beats me why they didn't go for a civilian variant of Link 16, or something similar.
Variable rate but runs at up to 238Kbps (about 12x the channel capacity of VDL4), has very robust anti jam/anti spoofing features, 2 channels of digital voice, supports everything that UAT, 1090ES etc support and much more, as such as building a consolidated wx radar picture from all of the aircraft in a particular area, bidirectional traffic info, vectors and multi leg flight paths, airfield serviceability, all of the services that currently use ACARS, and just about anything else you could dream up over the next 20 years.
Expensive at military prices, but no reason at all from an engineering perspective as to why it couldn't be quite economical if you could get commercial economies of scale. Blind Freddie could have seen that the cost argument for 1090ES was always going to be BS. Too late now, ICAO has well and truly screwed the pooch.
Last edited by bankrunner; 11th Apr 2015 at 06:51.