On 27 June 2012 MUAC started to use the LARA (Local And sub-Regional ASM) system operationally. This is the first large-scale common civil and military deployment of LARA in Europe.
MUAC has been integrated as the civil user in the first LARA cluster which is operational for the management of Belgian airspace. This cluster is now composed of a number of workstations in MUAC, in Belgian military airbases, CRC Glons, ATCC Semmerzake and the Belgian Airspace Management Cell. The LARA workstations are all connected over a network to the central LARA server, which is also installed at MUAC. The Brussels ACC will be integrated in this LARA network in the near future.
Another instance of LARA will be used in support of the Olympic games, as part of the FABEC Olympics Cell which will be operational at MUAC from 24 July to 13 August 2012. The mission of the FABEC Olympics Cell is to complement the pre-tactical planning done by the Network Manager in Brussels by extending the planning process and incorporating both civil and military ANSPs to form one single interface with the civil and military airspace users.
LARA is a support tool developed by the company Graffica Ltd. under a contract of the EUROCONTROL Directorate Single Sky (DSS). It encompasses all phases of airspace management – from long-term event planning to airspace management at level 2 and 3 – including real-time coordination of airspace activation. The capability to connect a national LARA system to neighbouring LARA systems will eventually provide seamless coordination between different States and facilitate efficient cross-border operations.
The use of LARA in this initial phase will lead to improved safety levels due to common airspace data available at civil and military centres, more efficient use of the airspace, Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA3+) made possible for the entire Brussels UIR and civilian peak periods made visible to military users.
At the end of 2012 LARA will be connected to the MUAC Flight Data Processing System in order to enable automatic display of the activation/de-activation of the military areas on the MUAC controller working positions. Inter-connection with the LARA Dutch cluster is under development.
For more information contact Robert Parys, ASD.