be given by the agencies, so as to allow interagency consultation in arriving at a determination of instructions to Comsat. (4) In cases where Comsat is informed that consideration of certain matters by the FCC is required, Comsat's submission to the FCC shall be in such form, and with sufficient supporting data, so that the United States Government instructions may provide the flexibility required in discussions in the ICSC (5) Ordinarily, the United States Government instructions will be transmitted to Comsat by the Department of State following expeditious and non-public consideration by appropriate Government agencies. The agreed procedures do not preclude, however, that the FCC, after consultation with the Department of State and the DTM, may find it appropriate and desirable from time to time to hold public hearings relating to matters on which Comsat is to be instructed. (6) In any event, after appropriate governmental procedures have been accomplished, the Department of State will, taking into account the respective government agency determinations, issue instructions to Comsat as to the position it should take on the agenda items which require United States Government instructions. If implementation of these procedures should cause you any difficulty, or if you would like to examine more closely the precise content of the agreed interagency procedures, we will be pleased to meet with you at your convenience. Sincerely yours, FRANK E. LOY, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic Affairs. COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE CORPORATION, Mr. FRANK E. LOY, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. LOY: This is in response to your letter of 18 August informing Comsat of the procedures to be followed in providing guidance from the United States Government for Comsat's activity as U.S. representative in the Interim Communications Satellite Committee (ICSC) of the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (INTELSAT). I understand that, in earlier response to your letter, you have already received a letter from Mr. Colino, our Director of International Arrangements, which suggests some further clarification of the procedures as applied to certain levels of Comsat managerial activity. Furthermore, I believe that a meeting has already been held between members of our respective staffs at which these matters have been the subject of helpful discussion. Comsat welcomes this codification of procedures, the absence of which, as you say, has plagued us. As is normally the case with new procedures in such an important matter, we would expect these to be refined and otherwise improved in time, but you may be assured of Comsat's maximum cooperation from the outset, beginning with the procedures exactly as you have set them forth. To this assurance I would like to add a suggestion. The best of laws and policies can fail in application through lack of common dedication to their purpose, often unintended and resulting from lack of common understanding. To achieve maximum guaranty of an initial understanding of the broad as well as the specific national interests, and of the practical problems confronting Comsat in the ICSC, I propose that, as we approach the first few meetings of the ICSC in accordance with the new procedures, I join you and the other U.S. principals in timely meetings. The best time for such meetings could be a few days following the circulation of the proposed ICSC agenda in each instance. If this suggestion finds favor with you and the other principals, it would be Comsat's intention to display at these meetings not just the specific questions raised by the particular agenda but also broader questions which to Comsat seem likely candidates for future consideration in the ICSC. Sincerely, JAMES MCCORMACK, Chairman of the Board. Mr. HOLIFIELD. The next witness will be Mr. Archie W. League, Director of Air Traffic Service of the Federal Aviation Agency. Mr. League, will you please introduce your associates, and we will go ahead with your statement. STATEMENT OF ARCHIE W. LEAGUE, DIRECTOR OF AIR TRAFFIC This is Colonel May on my right, and Mr. Conerly on my left. Mr. ROBACK. Will you present your statement? Mr. LEAGUE. Yes, sir; I have a statement to present, Mr. Chairman. I am Archie W. League, Director of Air Traffic Service of the Federal Aviation Agency. With me today is Mr. Joe Conerly, Deputy Director, Systems Research and Development Service, and Col. Richard May who is Chief of the Communications Staff, Air Traffic Service. On behalf of Administrator McKee and myself I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the subcommittee today to present FAA's plan in the satellite communications field. Our interest in satellite communications at this time is based primarily upon what we believe to be a pressing requirement for improved air-ground voice communications in the control of transoceanic flights. We are also looking forward in time to the availability of satellite circuits to replace or supplement our existing long-haul, point-to-point circuitry. Colonel May will discuss this subject in a presentation following this statement. The Federal Aviation Agency controls the movement of international air traffic within 10 control areas and flight information regions located in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Caribbean areas. We will show these to you in Colonel May's presentation. To properly control this oceanic traffic, there is, in our opinion, an urgent need for more reliable, static-free communications between ground stations and aircraft in overocean flight. Improvement is required both in direct pilot-tocontroller voice channels and in controller-to-controller coordination channels between widely separated air traffic control centers. As the traffic volume continues to build, the need for better communications of this type becomes even more pressing. Air traffic, as you know, is growing at an unprecedented rate. For example, in 1965 there were 67,306 transatlantic aircraft handled, under instrument flight rules (IFR), by our Air Route Traffic Control Center at New York City. In 1975 this figure is conservatively estimated to become 121,000-a growth of almost 100 percent. Other areas in which traffic is controlled by FAA are also feeling the impact of this increased international traffic. Our San Juan center, in 1965, handled 57,000 oceanic IFR flights, with a grown expectancy of 102,000 by 1975; and our Honolulu center handled 70,561 oceanic IFR flights in 1965, with an expected 127,000 by 1975. In a study of traffic activity made by the FAA covering the period 1975-80, it is conservately estimated that by 1975 about 400 aircraft will transmit the North Atlantic on an average day in the summer months of June, August, and September. The same growth rate would bring this figure to 550 in 1980. This is to be contrasted with the present rate of traffic across the North Atlantic which approximates 224 flights a day during these same summer months. Over the oceanic routes, our current air traffic control communications suffer primarily from the inherent limitations of high frequency (HF) radio. Despite our efforts to improve the system, these limitations continue to be propagation problems which will not permit static and fade-free pilot-to-controller channels, leading to the loss of air/ground communications for periods of up to an hour or more in midocean areas. In addition, continued use of such inadequate HF communications systems will hardly be welcomed in an air traffic control environment that may one day call for implementation of automatic data transfer systems. The obvious consequence of continuing the use of the present HF communications system for overocean communications will be to compound the problems of exercising proper air traffic control and providing essential flight information services to aircraft in flight. One of our most important objectives is to furnish adequate communications service in this period of rapid growth. Although we have looked at other measures, we believe that a VHF communications satellite capability is the only immediate answer to the problem. With regard to long-haul point-to-point communications, the FAA is an active operating member of the National Communications System (NCS). In accordance with the concept and objectives of President Kennedy's memorandum of August 1, 1963, the FAA is in the = position of both contributing to and sharing in the resources of the NCS. Such participation is essential since in time of war or national emergency FAA may revert to DOD control, and our communications assets can be most effectively employed by prior planning within the context of the NCS. Moreover, we believe the NCS philosophy to be basically sound and that it should result in more efficient utilization of the total communications resources of the Government. In the area of air-ground communications, the FAA is in favor of an initial program with broad Atlantic coverage, utilizing a single synchronized satellite, equatorially orbited, and requiring a minimal addition to or modification of existing aircraft equipment. We have approached Comsat Corp. on the feasibility of a leasing arrangement to provide the total service for such a system. Colonel May in his presentation will give you the current status of our Comsat Corp. efforts. The initial system we envisage would provide a long-range ground-to-satellite-to-aircraft capability using VHF frequency. Through the operational experience gained from use of this initial satellite we would adjust or modify operational procedures, if necessary, prior to recommending such a communications system for the rest of the world. It is, in a sense, a practical pioneering effort. We appreciate, of course, that the implementation of even the first system will present some difficult problems. However, through close cooperation and coordination with Comsat, the aviation community and the NCS, which, of course, includes NASA, we are hopeful that we may soon enjoy the much improved capability that a communications satellite system will provide. Now, if you please, Colonel May has a very short presentation which should bring into sharper focus the details of our current position and future expectations of communications satellites. We will then be pleased to answer any questions you may have on the subject. BRIEFING ON AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SATELLITE Colonel MAY. Mr. Chairman, this will tend to amplify and perhaps explain a little further some of Mr. League's statements. The subject is our interest in satellite communications. Our basic needs are not much different, they are not much different than other agencies that have both flying and ground communications as a requirement. (Referring to chart FAA-1:) FAA's BASIC COMMUNICATION NEEDS LONG HAUL-POINT-TO-POINT (Voice and Record) • DOMESTIC • INTERNATIONAL • WEATHER, ACFT MOVEMENT, FLIGHT PLANS, ADMIN. ETC. •GROUND/AIR (Voice) • DOMESTIC • OCEANIC • AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL Colonel MAY. We have long haul point-to-point needs, both voice and record, of a domestic and international type, over which weather, aircraft movement, flight plans, administration, and the like pass and then we have ground-to-air which is exclusively voice, and here, again, we have two brackets, domestic and oceanic, in both cases for air traffic control. The present source of FAA's communications for long-haul point-to-point and domestic communications is the NCS. Circuits are about 99 percent leased through DCA's DECCO. We enjoy Telpak rates through DECCO. Internationally we use NCS resources whenever they are available. (Referring to chart FAA-2:) PRESENT SOURCE OF FAA's COMMUNICATION • LONG HAUL POINT-TO-POINT • DOMESTIC - FAA's NETWORKS CONSIDERED NCS RESOURCES AND ARE LEASED BY FAA THRU DCA'S DECCO • INTERNATIONAL- FAA USES NCS RESOURCES WHENEVER AVAILABLE-OTHERWISE LEASED WIRE OR FAA OPERATED RADIO CIRCUITS GROUND/AIR (FOR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL) THUS NOT IN NCS • DOMESTIC - FAA OPERATED - SHORT RANGE VHF UHF • OCEANIC- FAA AND INDUSTRY OPERATED LONG RANGE - HF Mr. ROBACK. What is DECCO? Colonel MAY. Defense Commercial Communications Office. Colonel MAY. I think it is just to help it make a word. It may have other meanings, but I think it is just the first two letters of the word "defense." Internationally we use NCS resources wherever they are available, and here I would include mainland to Hawaii subcable circuits. We are currently using three. These are leased, again, through the military, and we intend to continue to use them. Wherever we can't provide our own or use the NCS we have to come up with our own leased arrangements circuits. Ground-air is somewhat different. As you know, this is defined as tactical-type communication and is, therefore, not part of the NCS. It is exclusive from the NCS. Mr. ROBACK. You lease channels from the carriers, right? Colonel MAY. Yes. Mr. ROBACK. And you also have your own radio communication on long haul! Colonel MAY. Yes, sir. We have radio circuits between Hawaii and the mainland, for example, for backup use. Mr. ROBACK. Do you use State Department or Defense communications for long-haul purposes only in emergencies where you don't otherwise have them, or do you use them regularly? |