An air traffic command automation system on an aerial vehicle for automating the process of listening to, interpreting, adhering to, and responding to air traffic commands, the system comprising one or more processors configured by programming instructions on non-transient computer readable media, the system configured to: receive an air traffic command message directed to the aerial vehicle, from an entity other than flight crew on the aerial vehicle, that includes one or more tasks for the aerial vehicle to perform; determine from the command message the one or more tasks for the aerial vehicle to perform; generate a sequence of actions for each one of the one or more tasks that the aerial vehicle can undertake to accomplish the task, wherein each action corresponds to a state change that can be made by the aerial vehicle and wherein each action is mapped to one of the one or more tasks, the sequence of actions comprising at least simultaneous altitude and speed changes; verify the coherence and feasibility of each one of the actions of the sequence of actions, verify the safety of interacting actions of the sequence of actions, wherein verification of the safety of interacting actions of the sequence of actions comprises checking that the simultaneous altitude and speed changes will not cause the aerial vehicle to stall; relay an interpretation of the command message to the command message originator; preview the verified sequence of actions with the flight crew; and issue commands to execute actions at appropriate points during a mission, wherein the system is configured to generate execution event monitors for identifying events on which action execution is dependent, evaluate the event monitors, and issue a command to execute actions when an event on which the action is dependent is detected. receive an air traffic command message directed to the aerial vehicle, from an entity other than flight crew on the aerial vehicle, that includes one or more tasks for the aerial vehicle to perform; determine from the command message the one or more tasks for the aerial vehicle to perform; generate a sequence of actions for each one of the one or more tasks that the aerial vehicle can undertake to accomplish the task, wherein each action corresponds to a state change that can be made by the aerial vehicle and wherein each action is mapped to one of the one or more tasks, the sequence of actions comprising at least simultaneous altitude and speed changes; verify the coherence and feasibility of each one of the actions of the sequence of actions, verify the safety of interacting actions of the sequence of actions, wherein verification of the safety of interacting actions of the sequence of actions comprises checking that the simultaneous altitude and speed changes will not cause the aerial vehicle to stall; relay an interpretation of the command message to the command message originator; preview the verified sequence of actions with the flight crew; and issue commands to execute actions at appropriate points during a mission, wherein the system is configured to generate execution event monitors for identifying events on which action execution is dependent, evaluate the event monitors, and issue a command to execute actions when an event on which the action is dependent is detected.