In close collaboration with its members, in 2025, RTCA, Inc. published 19 comprehensive, consensus-based technical standards and reports which support critical aviation technical advancements and ensure aviation safety. Additionally, RTCA members shared their subject matter expertise to actively shape conversations in hands-on AI/ML workshops and a high impact webinar series which explored multiple dimensions of GNSS Jamming and Spoofing threats.

AI Workshop Series Take-Aways

RTCA members recommended pursuing several topic papers on ML. One paper is likely to cover how to link high level requirements with low level requirements using Machine Learning. These activities will continue as part of RTCA’s 2026 AI/ML Workshop Series.

GNSS Webinar Series Take-Aways

Nearly 800 attendees tuned in for the 2025 GNSS Jamming and Spoofing Live Webinar Series, which included the following topics:

·         Building Resilience
·         Operational Impacts
·         Impact of Unreliable GNSS Data in Comms, Flight Decks & Unexpected Domains

Catch the Replay here.

Technical Publication Highlights

We thank our members for your dedication to aviation safety and technical excellence. New technical publications addressed spectrum interference, aviation data security, safe introduction and deployment of wireless communications within the certified avionics environment and other safety-critical scenarios.

Below are a selection of technical publications released in 2025 .

DO-364A, Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards (MASPS) for Aeronautical Information/Meteorological Data Link Services 

DO-0364A addresses system characteristics and allocation of requirements that support data link services. This is intended to be useful to designers, manufacturers, installers, service providers, regulators, and users of the AIS/MET Data Link Services System. The requirements contained in this document are necessary to provide adequate assurance that AIS/MET Data Link Services System will function in an acceptable manner. Compliance with this standard is recommended as one means of assuring that AIS/MET Data Link Services System performs satisfactorily under all conditions normally encountered in aeronautical operations.

Published:
March 2025
By SC-206 Aeronautical Information and Meteorological Data Link Services

RR-005 – Aviation Data Security Report

This report addresses minimum standards for the generation, storage, and delivery of data, including Operational Flight Programs, sensitive maintenance data records and other security relevant data.

DSEC addresses two different industry needs:

• Use cases that airplane cyber personnel could apply their programs vs.
• Framework that aviation cyber SMEs in standards groups could use to develop requirements

Published:
June 2025
By SC-216 Aeronautical Information Systems Security

RR-007 – Information Security Management System for Aviation Organizations Report

Releasing this publication as a report met the request of EASA and industry as it captured work completed to date and was made available prior to the first Part-IS implementation.

Published:
September 2025
By SC-216 Aeronautical Information Systems Security

DO-262G Minimum Operating Performance Standards for Avionics Supporting Next Generation Satellite Systems

and

DO-343E Minimum Aviation System Performance Standard for AMS(R)S Data and Voice Communications Supporting Required Communications Performance (RCP) and Required Surveillance Performance (RSP)

These standards updates included the new technical performance requirements that were published in DO-350 as well as the new planned ICAO SARPS development for future voice performance updates. As AMS(R)S is the highest safety service in the world, these updates are vital to ensure that the L-Band cockpit communication are provided under DO-262 as primary means of compliance with FAA TSO-C159e (and future revisions with these MASP/MOPS updates to TSO-C159f).

Published:
September 2025
By SC-222 AMS(R)S

RR-004A: Susceptibility of Airborne Weather Radar Systems to Radio Frequency

This publication describes how emerging telecom systems may affect airborne weather radar performance. RR-004A provides the first coordinated, industry wide analysis that quantifies the impacts of external interference on airborne weather and provides objective data to help authorities when defining these spectrum requirements.

Published:
December 2025
by: SC-230 Airborne Weather Detection Systems

DO-402 – Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for a Wireless Avionics Intra-Communication (WAIC) System

This seminal document describes the essential performance requirements for the safe introduction and deployment of wireless communications within the certified avionics environment.

The publication of DO-402 is the final cornerstone required to leverage the regulatory framework that has been put in place for WAIC through the ITU and ICAO. The MOPS defines the technical and operational criteria necessary to ensure WAIC systems perform safely and reliably. The System Process Technical Assessment on wireless communications and the resulting reference architecture offer a possible means of compliance for implementing avionics communications across shared network media.

Published:
June 2025
By SC-236 Standards for WAIC

Work in Progress – Highlights

SC-135 Environmental Testing

SC-135 has spent 2025 concluding a successful Review and Comment on Revision H of DO-160 which included over 2000 comments from members improving all 26 sections of DO-160G.

Updates include consistent formatting and numbering and a standard set of Environmental Test Report Requirements among all sections to standardize final reports supporting Technical Standard Order applications. Notable section updates include Section 16, Power Input, which has been revised to make it easier to use for testing all aviation equipment, and Section 26, Flammability, which has been updated to remove obsolete tests and align with the FAA Fire Test Handbook.

DO-160H is available at for public commenting at https://www.rtca.org/committees-overview/documents-under-review/until  until January 16, 2026. All comments will be dispositioned by SC-135 members in the first half of 2026. Publication is expected in the fall of 2026.

SC-223 Internet Protocol Suite (IPS) and AeroMACS

Participants from across the industry are participating in flight trials of the Internet Protocol Suite. Lessons learned will be incorporated into the next editions of DO-404 and DO-379 and the findings are expected to be released in a report in 2026 .

SC-239 Low Range Radar Altimeters

The new Radar Altimeter MOPS will modernize and harmonize the performance standards for Radar Altimeters, addressing numerous shortcomings of legacy standards in the context of the Radar Altimeter being much more deeply integrated into safety-critical aircraft systems than ever before.

a key aspect of the new Radar Altimeter MOPS is the RF interference/spectrum compatibility requirements, ensuring  that Radar Altimeters can continue to operate safely in an ever-changing spectrum environment, especially with high-power mobile telecommunications networks (e.g., 5G/6G/etc.) moving into adjacent frequency bands.
In addition to the full MOPS being the basis for updated TSO standards, the RF interference requirements may be used as the basis for near-term spectrum compatibility considerations, such as the upcoming Upper C-band auction from the U.S. FCC

SC-243 – An update to DO-254

After over 25 years of use by the aviation industry, RTCA’s Program Management Committee approved an update to DO-254 that kicked off in February 2025. SC-243 is working on a list of specific changes to DO-254 which are aligned with current best practices in the industry to provide clarity in its use in aviation hardware development. These changes include addressing system aspects of hardware design assurance and the hardware design life cycle. A full list of planned updates is available to RTCA Members who join SC-243 in Internal Report 002 (IR-002).

2025 Caps off RTCA’s 90th year of serving the aviation industry. We look forward to many more decades of service to aviation safety and working with our members to Unlock the Future of Flight with the Foundation of Safety.