{"id":25177,"date":"2024-04-29T04:39:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T08:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=25177"},"modified":"2024-04-29T05:01:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T09:01:30","slug":"why-do-we-see-us-military-notams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/why-do-we-see-us-military-notams\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do we see US Military Notams?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in March, an OPSGROUP member reached out to us after the following Notam appeared in their flight plan briefing package.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As EGKB\/Biggin Hill<\/strong> (UK) was their filed alternate, the Notam was of some interest. A quick email to the airport authority confirmed that the ILS was fully serviceable and available.<\/p>\n

The member contacted Jeppesen directly about the Notam, and here was their response:<\/p>\n

“The Notam in question is actually a US DOD procedural Notam which only applies to US military pilots and those flying under contract\/partnership with the DOD. So, while the tower may confirm that the approach is in-service, the US military is not authorized to fly it for reasons known only to them…”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The following questions remained:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Why are we seeing these Notams in the first place?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 What is the reason for the restriction on military aircraft?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The short answer is that the response from Jeppesen was correct \u2013 but could use a little more explanation.<\/p>\n

Where we get our Notams from.<\/h4>\n

There are two primary “original” sources<\/strong> for Notams around the world:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The European AIS Database (EAD)<\/strong> \u2013 run by Eurocontrol<\/li>\n
  2. The US DoD (Department of Defense).<\/strong> It supplies Notams to the FAA for their \u2018Notam Search\u2019 app<\/a>, and their SWIM feeds \u2013 the FAA\u2019s information-sharing platform.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If your flight plan package is sourcing Notams from the US DoD (and not being filtered correctly), you will see military Notams included \u2013 like the one above. Think of them like company notams, for internal use. In this sense, they are not \u2018true\u2019 Notams and shoud be completely disregarded by civilian operators.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    But why the UK?<\/h4>\n

    To use the DoD Notam feed correctly, military Notams need to be filtered out. But there may be more to it than that.<\/p>\n

    You\u2019ll see the EGKB Notam above has a \u2018V\u2019 designator.<\/p>\n

    In the UK \u2018V\u2019 series Notams mean the following:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    “Notification of Security Advice to UK Air Operators by Government to provide guidance\/instructions on Airspace Security Risks. Volcanic Ash related information within En-Route Airspace London FIR\/UIR, Scottish FIR\/UIR, Shannon FIR\/UIR and Shanwick Oceanic FIR…”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    In the US, they mean something different:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    “A NOTAM information pertaining to a location’s published instrument procedures, i.e., Standard Instrument Approach Procedure (SIAPs), Standard Instrument Departure (SIDs), Departure Procedures (DPs). These NOTAMs shall be published under the direction of TERPS personnel…”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    Which is why in this case (and many others) we may still see these Notams find their way into our briefing packs.<\/p>\n

    In a Notam-tale as old as time: just because they\u2019re there, doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re relevant.<\/strong> The potential for confusion holds strong \u2013 especially if civilian operators misinterpret Notams never meant for them in the first place.<\/p>\n

    Why does the military have their own restrictions?<\/h4>\n

    Because they do! In the same sense one airline can do something another does not allow.<\/p>\n

    Common sense indicates that the way military aircraft are operated differs substantially from civilian aircraft \u2013 and that the margins and procedures designed for us do not necessarily work in the same way for them.<\/p>\n

    Have more info?<\/h4>\n

    If you have something you\u2019d like to add to this article, we\u2019d love to hear from you<\/strong>. You can reach us at team@ops.group<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Back in March, an OPSGROUP member reached out to us after the following Notam appeared…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":25208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1108,792,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-25177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-military","9":"tag-notams","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25177"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25211,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25177\/revisions\/25211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}