Korea plans to develop an aircraft tracking system in an effort to enhance flight safety for all types of planes.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said Wednesday it will spend 8.6 billion won ($7.5 million) until 2014 to build a next-generation automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast protocol that can transmit the altitude, speed and direction of aircraft to air traffic controllers every second.
ADS-B can provide information about an aircraft up to 370 kilometers away and is designed to work with a shorter range traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) to prevent mid-air accidents.
"The system is designed to provide swift and accurate information on aircraft, particularly those flying in the 1,200-3,000-meter altitude range, that can sometimes be hard to pick up on radar if they are over mountainous terrain," the ministry said.
Because flight information can be gathered by a simple mobile communications relay station similar to those used for mobile phones, the system will be much more economical to set up and operate than conventional radar networks, the ministry said.