Navigational lights monitoring system plays a crucial role in the safety of the aircraft taking off and landing. It is one of the important research projects as the current civil aviation that how to improve the performance of the airfield lighting system in effectively. The research and development of the navigational lights monitoring system is introduced in this paper. The main contents include the development situation and the trend of the navigational lights monitoring system, the control method development course and the latest research directions of the dimmer, and also include the research method of the lights inspection system and the designing idea of the upper monitor. Finally, the prospect of the application of the monitoring in airport light station is discussed.