Indian Naval Air Base INS Hamsa in Goa has become the first military Airfield with Navigation Performance (RNP) Approach Based on the Indian Satellite System GAGAN.
RNP is a performance-based navigation (PBN) type that lets an aeroplane fly a certain route between two 3D points. RNP can also mean the amount of performance needed for a certain procedure or area of airspace. With an RNP of 10, a guidance system must be able to figure out where it is within a circle with a diameter of 10 nautical miles. An RNP of 0.3 means that the aircraft’s guidance system must be able to figure out where it is within a circle with a radius of 3/10 of a nautical mile. Most of the time, the differences between these systems are due to redundancies in the navigational devices on board.
The RNP strategy was first implemented in South Asia–Pacific region on the INS Hansa, the first Joint-User International Aerodrome. Reduced reliance on ground-based technology for navigation, such as Very-High-Frequency Omnidirectional Radio (VOR) and Instrument Landing System (ILS), will result from implementing the RNP approach. This RNP approach will deliver precisions close to those of a Category-I ILS, making it possible to continue aircraft operations without interruption even when the equipment mentioned above is either unable to function or is undergoing maintenance.
Both the Indian Navy and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) put in a lot of hard effort and worked closely together to achieve this capacity. A letter of Agreement (LOA) between the INS Hansa and Mopa International Airport was drafted by AAl officials who went to the Air Station on the 7th and 8th of April 2022 to finalise the process. During the course of the conversation, AAl suggested that all of INS Hansa’s Instrument Approach Procedures (IAPs) should be updated and that RNP approaches should be designed for both runways.
All lAPs were amended using aeronautical charts generated by the Survey Department of the AAI. The officer who was assigned to AAl had completed the Instrument Procedure Design Course (IPDC). The AAl was also responsible for designing the Indian satellite-based (GAGAN) RNP approach for runway 26 at INS Hansa (Dabolim Airport). The station’s aviation assets were responsible for conducting successful flight trials for this approach.
