Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Unveils Plans for a ‘State-of-the-Art Air Traffic Control System’

The Department of Transportation, led by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, has unveiled plans for a new “state-of-the-art air traffic control system” which leaders believe will be the “envy of the world.”

Duffy made the point that the current infrastructure was put in place when Elvis was a star.

“Really really old. It all has to be new, state-of-the-art,” he said.

The plan involves the FAA replacing what the press release describes as “core infrastructure including radar, software, hardware and telecommunications networks to manage modern travel.”

“We have a system that is built for the past, we are proposing a system built for the future,” it adds, focusing on four key components of infrastructure, which it identified as communications, surveillance, automation, and facilities.

The press release identified 6 “critical actions” that must take place, which are as follows:

* Replacing antiquated telecommunications with new fiber, wireless, and satellite technologies at over 4,600 sites, including 25,000 new radios and 475 new voice switches.
* Replacing 618 radars which have gone past their life cycle.
* Addressing runway safety by increasing the number of airports with Surface Awareness Initiative (SAI) to 200.
* Building six new air traffic control centers for the first time since the 1960s and replacing towers and TRACONs.
* Installing new modern hardware and software for all air traffic facilities to create a common platform system throughout towers, TRACONs, and centers.
* Addressing the specific challenges that face Alaska by adding 174 new weather stations.

Additionally, Duffy said they are going to focus on creating a pipeline of new air traffic controllers, as they have been 3,000 controllers short. However, he said this process takes time. The coronavirus era, he explained, largely affected the pipeline of new controllers coming in through the academy.

“So we’ve done two things. Air traffic controllers who can retire after 25 years of service, we’re going to pay them a bonus. We’re going to ask them to stay past their retirement date, to serve their country,” he said, adding that they are “going to expand the pipeline at our academy in Oklahoma City to get the best and the brightest air traffic controllers through that system and trained up.”

“And then, you know, I think it’s going to take us, you know, a year to three years to get fully staffed,” he predicted, noting that it takes time for these air traffic controllers to get trained up for their specific airspace.

“You just can’t move controllers around. They have to be trained in the airspace in which they work,” he said. “And that takes time. And so, we’re navigating the mess that was left to us. We’re hiring more air traffic controllers.”

In a formal statement, Duffy emphasized that “decades of neglect have left us with an outdated system that is showing its age.”

“Building this new system is an economic and national security necessity, and the time to fix it is now,” he continued. “The unprecedented coalition of support we’ve assembled — from labor to industry — is indicative of just how important it is to this administration to get done what no one else could. The American people are counting on us, and we won’t let them down.”

The announcement comes months after the incident that occurred over the Potomac, as an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter collided upon the plane’s approach to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. All 67 individuals involved lost their lives in the tragedy.