Definition
An automated system that continuously checks the operating status of an unattended navigational aid (such as a VOR, NDB, or ILS) and reports its condition back to a control point. If the facility drifts out of tolerance or fails, the RMS detects it and either shuts the facility down, flags it as unmonitored, or alerts technicians so a NOTAM can be issued.
Plain English
Equipment that watches over a navigation aid from a distance and tells controllers or technicians if something goes wrong with it.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA acronym lists, technical descriptions, and maintenance or facility-status information for aviation systems.
Derivation
Remote means 'from a distance,' monitoring means 'watching the condition of something,' and subsystem means it's a smaller system inside a larger one (the navigation facility). Together: the part of the facility that watches it from afar.
Why Pilots Care
It allows ground crews to spot problems with remote equipment early, reducing the chance of service interruptions that could affect navigation, communication, or weather reporting.
Intuition Check
Remote does not mean the pilot controls the system from the airplane. Here it means the system’s condition is checked from another location.
Example Sentence 1
The VOR's RMS detected a signal out of tolerance and automatically shut the facility down before any aircraft used bad data.
Example Sentence 2
By monitoring the RMS, maintenance staff could address an issue before it affected any flight operations.