The United States Congress established the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) in 2003 to plan and coordinate the development of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). The JPDO is a multi-agency public/private initiative to include: United States Department of Transportation, United States Department of Defense, Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administrations, and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Congress ended funding for JPDO in 2014.
Profile
The NextGen portfolio includes large-scale investments, research, and operational changes that will profoundly impact the capabilities of the nation’s air transportation system. This includes developments in air traffic control, airspace management, satellite-based navigation, security (both at the airport and in the air), digital communications, net-centric operations, and changes in the way aviation weather information is gathered and disseminated throughout the system.
With this in mind, and given the broad impact of these changes, the concept of a joint office, one that can manage the development of the NextGen architecture and integrated work plan, has become especially important.
Since its inception, the JPDO has been in the development of a framework for planning NextGen, identifying and prioritizing key multi-agency concerns, and driving consensus in the development of investment choices and decisions.
The JPDO is governed by a Senior Policy Committee (SPC) that is made up of Cabinet-level representatives from each of the JPDO’s government partners. The SPC is chaired by the Secretary of Transportation.
The scope of the JPDO’s planning is broad. It engages the collaborative energies of the departments and agencies, the academic community, research, and private sectors. It covers a time span of nearly two decades and calls for a unique level of integration in the planning and budgeting of critical investments in the national transportation system. This approach is representative of a new paradigm in the way government pursues large-scale transformational initiatives, particularly those that encompass a broad range of mission areas, agencies, and the private sector.
The JPDO’s Joint Planning Environment (JPE) is a key tool in these planning efforts. Through its Enterprise Architecture (the architectural blueprint), Concept of Operations, and Integrated Work Plan (all publicly accessible on the Internet), the JPE offers a level of transparency and accountability that the Federal Government expects. This kind of access is unprecedented. The concept is a critical part of implementing a Federated Enterprise Architecture.
A New Paradigm in Government Management
The JPDO mission, and what the organization is intended to achieve, has at times been called “an experimental concept” in government management. NextGen involves a wide range of carefully timed and integrated activities, and while having significant benefits in the near- and mid-terms, it is also heavily focused on the long-term development of America’s aviation infrastructure. This kind of challenge necessitates an entirely new paradigm in the way government functions to include the way it plans, makes decisions, resources, budgets, and in the way it reacts to opportunities and challenges.
Drivers for Change
America’s air transportation system is responsible for over 5% of the nation’s GDP and has created 11 million jobs. Operationally, it is the safest system in the world and handles over 750 million passengers each year. However, the critical infrastructure supporting the system is facing significant limitations.
The system relies on radar and point-to-point beacons to control and manage the flow of air traffic. These are all World-War-II-era technologies that make it difficult for the system to expand or to adjust to changes in system operations. If the aviation infrastructure is going to be able to meet the needs expected in the 21st century, it needs to be sufficiently scalable to support additional demand, and flexible enough to accommodate changes in the aviation industry as well as the introduction of new aircraft. Further, NextGen, through improved operations, new aircraft designs, and more efficient routes, will be able to recognize significant benefits in terms of reduced environmental impact. That, in a nutshell, is the objective of NextGen.