Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
FAA details four work streams: fiber, radios, radars and electronic flight strips
Loading...
Summary
FAA technology leads and Peraton laid out four technical work streams to modernize the National Airspace System: replacing copper wires with fiber, upgrading radios and voice switches, deploying modern radars and surface sensors, and digitizing flight strips and terminal flight data tools.
At the center of the briefing, FAA Chief Technology Officer Rebecca Guy and Peraton described four discrete technical work streams that together form the infrastructure backbone for a modernized national airspace.
Wires: Officials said crews are replacing copper telecom lines with high‑speed fiber. "We've already replaced 50% of the old wires moving from copper to fiber," Secretary Duffy said, and Peraton reported that roughly 5,100 connections will be upgraded nationwide with 2,400 already underway.
Communications: The FAA said many radios and voice switches date to the 1970s and produce static and unreliable links. Justin Ciacio said more than 27,000 radios across 1,600 sites are being replaced and more than 250 sites are complete; Rebecca Guy emphasized that new voice switches reduce garbled transmissions and improve controller‑to‑pilot clarity.
Radars and surface systems: The briefing described three radar systems: terminal radars and beacons (612 sites to be upgraded), surface movement radars (53 planned sites, two complete in Houston) and the Surface Awareness Initiative (SAI). Peraton and FAA said 220 SAI systems are planned, 54 are operational and 42 are in active installation, giving controllers a real‑time picture of aircraft and vehicles on the ground.
Electronic flight strips and TFDM: FAA officials said paper strips continue to create administrative workload and situational‑awareness risk. "We're ditching the paper strips for good," the briefing said. The Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) was described as already live at 17 of 89 sites; when fully deployed, TFDM will provide real‑time departure sequencing and decision support to reduce gate and runway congestion.
Alaska and remote operations: Officials singled out Alaska for additional deployments — upgrades at 17 flight service stations and a plan for 174 weather camera systems to supply real‑time visual data for remote routes.
Officials said these technical upgrades are being fielded with an eye to redundancy and resiliency — for example, radars as backup to GPS — and that training and staffing remain part of the effort. "These systems need to be better, and we are replacing both with brand new state‑of‑the‑art radar," Rebecca Guy said.
The FAA and Peraton described rollout metrics and site counts as ongoing program data; officials did not provide a comprehensive, site‑by‑site timetable in the briefing.
