The need for a new ATM operational concept a strategic necessity?

The new free flight concept requires the implementation of new capabilities in the cockpit as well as in the ground systems and the complexity of these capabilities depends on the complexity of the applications themselves. As an example, in the case of simple station-keeping applications, the accent in the cockpit will be on comprehensive availability and selective display of traffic information, while the ground system will have to have capabilities to automatically monitor the accuracy of the station keeping. At the other extreme, autonomous aircraft operations will require, alongside the aforementioned traffic display also conflict detection and resolution logic to be implemented on board. In this scenario, the ground system´s role in respect of airspace volumes allocated for autonomous operation is likely to be reduced to a sort of automated flight following and alerting capability