FAA signs radar deals to drag US air traffic control out of the 1980s
- Reference: 1767806698
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/07/faa_radar_atc_deals/
- Source link:
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) disclosed that contracts have been signed with both Indra Group and RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon Technologies, to deliver modern radar systems for the overhauled system.
Separately, RTX said that its subsidiary, Collins Aerospace, has secured $438 million to support the Radar System Replacement program, while Indra indicated it has been awarded $342 million to manufacture next-generation air traffic surveillance radars.
[1]
RTX already develops the AN/SPY-6 family of radar kit used by US Navy ships, and various other military radar systems.
[2]
[3]
The news follows the announcement in December that security and technology services company Peraton had been chosen as the prime integrator, with overall responsibility for building the imaginatively named Brand New Air Traffic Control System (BNATCS).
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy exclaimed at the time that he was "thrilled" to be working with Peraton because they "share President Trump's drive to modernize our skies safely at record speed."
[4]
Commenting on the announcement, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said: "Our radar network is outdated and long overdue for replacement. Many of the units have exceeded their intended service life, making them increasingly expensive to maintain and difficult to support."
The FAA expects RTX and Indra to deliver replacements for up to 612 sites by June 2028 with modern, commercially available surveillance radar sets. It claims that the first installations are scheduled to begin this quarter, and upgrades will then proceed on a rolling basis, prioritizing high-traffic areas.
As well as replacing the radar, the FAA aims to consolidate the 14 different configurations in the current National Airspace System in order to simplify maintenance and logistics.
[5]
While the US likes to claim that its air traffic system is the safest in the world, it is antiquated, with much of the infrastructure dating to the 1980s or even earlier. There were [6]revelations last year that the system was still running with floppy disks and information on scraps of paper.
[7]Garmin autopilot lands small aircraft without human assistance
[8]IBM touts progress on tech stack for AI-enabled airline with no passengers or alcohol
[9]Munich Airport chaos after drone sightings spook air traffic control
[10]French jet left circling while Corsican controller caught Zs
Previous attempts at an upgrade [11]proceeded at a snail's pace , with the expectation that they would not be complete before 2030.
Last year, Duffy unveiled [12]ambitious plans to accelerate the overhaul after a report revealed that more than a third of the air traffic control systems were [13]in an "unsustainable" state .
Funding for this was approved as part of President Trump's budget bill last year, which allotted $12.5 billion for the BNATCS program. It is expected that another $20 billion will be required to finish the job.
Welcoming the move, Indra said it was fully aligned with the FAA, the US Department of Transportation, Congress, and the Trump administration in delivering a safer, more resilient, and future-ready National Airspace System.
Nate Boelkins, president of Avionics at Collins Aerospace, commented: "As a trusted supplier to the FAA for more than 70 years, Collins is ready to rapidly deploy next-generation radar systems that replace outdated technology with a single, modern and interoperable solution." ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aV7lmH_y7R55PK-AJ0aHbAAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aV7lmH_y7R55PK-AJ0aHbAAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aV7lmH_y7R55PK-AJ0aHbAAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aV7lmH_y7R55PK-AJ0aHbAAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aV7lmH_y7R55PK-AJ0aHbAAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/09/floppy_disks_and_paper_strips/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/24/autocomms/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/09/ibm_riyadh_air/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/03/munich_airport_drone/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/18/atc_controller_falls_asleep/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/24/us_air_traffic_control_system_upgrade/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/09/transportation_secretary_air_traffic_upgrade/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/05/faa_air_traffic_control/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Budget
>RTX already develops the AN/SPY-6 family of radar kit used by US Navy ships, and various other military radar systems.
That's why they chose an experienced supplier.
When was the last time a US Navy procurement project failed ?
What?? No AI?
You'd think AI would have been mentioned.
Just think of the cost savings....
- no people needed.
- therefore, no consoles, workstations, lunch rooms, washrooms, etc needed either.
What could possibly go wrong?
Good luck with them tariffs..
Yes, you heard me.
That may be my job gone then
My company maintains a lot of the FAA'S circuits, which still ride on DS0 and DS1 circuits. Probably a third to half of the circuits I work on support them. New systems will require more bandwidth than you can get on a DS1, which means ethernet circuits.
I ain't worried though. I was planning on retiring this coming summer. I may wait on them to walk me out the door instead now as the layoff package is pretty nice.
I'd already be retired were it not for Obamacare as standalone insurance used to be reasonable. Obamacare requires that I have to pay for all coverages instead of just the few I had planned on, my retirement was put on hold. I don't need reproductive services (we're both old and the necessary parts were either disconnected or removed) and we don't plan to fight the Reaper, so the coverage we needed would have been cheap.
Re: That may be my job gone then
Wow, I didn't think such circuits were still in use or supported!
Re: That may be my job gone then
It's amazing how old tech hangs around. Back in the mid to late 2000s, myself and my colleagues had to support a bit of gear (CMUX2, if you remember that) that transported the very old and very analogue signalling we knew as 'Gen-Gen' over E1/DS0. It seems some people at the Stock Exchange were still using it!
I'll hazard a guess that SDH/PDH transmission will still be a thing for quite a while yet.
President Trump's drive to modernize our skies safely at record speed.
Well, we all know the Modern Way to achieve things at record speed don't we, boys and girls?
Yes, it will be Agile and "move fast, break things" all the way.
What do mean, "Minimum Viable Product" isn't supposed to be the final deliverable? The plane got off the ground safely, didn't it? Landing? Landing? Nope, not in our scope for this sprint, that is all responsibility of the destination airport.
A prediction
Replacement of the "antiquated US Air Traffic Control system" seems to be announced every decade or so. Never seems to happen. At least this time it's only the radars which may indeed be major maintenance problems. A safe prediction would be that the project will be over budget, late, and won't achieve all its objectives.
Budget
Out of the $12.5 billion allotted, and $20 billion more estimated, I hope we don't end up with a situation where the hardware is built, software is written and tested (both with simulated and real-hardware inputs), but there are no funds left for actual installation and/or training the FAA staff (paying both trainers AND trainees for the time), plus removing the old stuff.
Projects like this make me afraid of cart-before-the-horse situations, where control towers are left with no functional system (for even a single hour) OR a system that functions but they can't use.