Goa’s Dabolim airport first to achieve satellite assisted landing approach: Indian Navy

The RNP approach will reduce dependency for navigation on ground-based equipment such as Very-High Frequency Omni Directional Radio (VOR) and Instrument Landing System

PANAJI: Goa’s naval airfield INS Hansa, which also doubles up as Goa’s international airport, will be the first Joint-User International Aerodrome in the South-Asia Pacific region to be augmented with the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) approach which is based on the GAGAN Indian Satellite System.

The RNP approach utilises Indian Satellite System GAGAN, aiding near Category I precision approach accuracies and thus, reducing dependence on ground-based equipment and enabling unhindered flying operations (Representative Image) (Twitter/IN_WNC)

The RNP approach will reduce dependency for navigation on ground-based equipment such as Very-High Frequency Omni Directional Radio (VOR) and Instrument Landing System (ILS). This RNP approach will provide near Category-I ILS accuracy, thereby aiding unhindered flying operations even when these equipment is unserviceable or under maintenance, the Navy said in a statement.

The Vertical Guidance (LPV) is similar to the Instrument Landing System ILS approach but without any ground-based Landing aid. It’s a satellite-based approach, which will reduce dependency for navigation on ground-based equipment such as Very-High Frequency Omnidirectional Radio (VOR) and Instrument Landing System (ILS). This RNP approach will provide near Category-I ILS accuracies, thereby aiding unhindered flying operations even when the aforementioned equipment is unserviceable/ under maintenance, the Navy said in a statement.

The capability was achieved through dedicated and concerted efforts of the Indian Navy and Airports Authority of India (AAI). A team of AAl officials visited the station in April 2022 for formulation of agreement between INS Hansa and Mopa international airport. During the discussions, AAl offered to revise all the Instrument Approach Procedures (IAPs) of INS Hansa and also design Required Navigation Performance (RNP) approaches for both the runways, the Navy said.

Goa’s Dabolim airport was set up as a civilian airport by the erstwhile Portuguese regime and served as an international airport with flights between Goa and Portuga. During the military operation to liberate Goa, it was taken over by the Indian Navy and is the country’s biggest naval airfield.

The airfield, which is used by the civilian international airport, is also home to the MiG 29K Squadrons that are assigned to the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, besides other search and reconnaissance aircraft and others.