The VOR/DME/TACAN system, its present state and its potential

This paper is intended to provide the reader with a quick review of the VOR/DME/TACAN system as it exists today. Thus it serves to introduce the series of more detailed articles that treat various specific aspects of the system. Comprehensive technical descriptions of the VOR and DME/TACAN systems were published some 10 years ago. This paper describes briefly the present VOR and DME/TACAN systems — both ground and airborne components — in terms of the changes since then. The paper concludes with a series of overall comments about the present VOR/DME/TACAN system and its potential.