June 3 (UPI) — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday the Federal Aviation Administration is searching for “top innovators” to lead the rebuilding of the nation’s “antiquated” air traffic control system.
Duffy said the FAA will host two industry days next week in Washington, D.C., and another in New Jersey to meet with companies that could spearhead the building of the next air traffic control system.
“We have an antiquated air traffic control system that is showing its age,” Duffy said. “In order to implement President Trump’s and my plan for a brand new system, we need the technical expertise and management experience from the best innovators in the world.”
“In the ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ there is $12.5 billion to start this project. A big deal,” Duffy told reporters Tuesday. “I believe the Senate’s going to provide more dollars for us also? We’ll see what they do … This has to happen fast.”
“The failures of the past is that the FAA has gotten small tranches of money, not full funding,” Duffy added. “We need full funding. We need the money up front so we can contract out and build this brand new system across the country.”
The FAA is planning to replace the core infrastructure of the system to include radar, software, hardware and telecommunications networks to make sure towers have the technology needed to “reduce outages, improve efficiency and reinforce safety.”
The proposed plan would replace fiber, wireless and satellite technologies at more than 4,600 sites and install 25,000 new radios and 475 new voice switches. And it would replace 618 radar systems that have exceeded their lifespan.
The FAA’s new system also calls for six new air traffic control centers, none of which have been built in the last 60 years.
“It is critical the United States acts now to invest and modernize a National Airspace System that supports the future and moves beyond the 1960s,” the FAA’s air traffic control system report said.
Plans to overhaul the nation’s air traffic control system were announced by the Trump administration in February. At this point, there is no timeline or price for the project.
The FAA said that information will come when the best company provides “innovative ideas and new technologies” to help execute and manage the massive reinvention.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for a new, world-class air traffic system,” said FAA acting administrator Chris Rocheleau. “We need world-class innovators to step up and tell us the best way to build it.”
