Overview
- The Modern Skies Coalition, which sent a letter on Thursday, asked congressional leaders for an additional $20 billion to build on last year’s $12.5 billion down payment for the Brand‑New Air Traffic Control System.
- The Federal Aviation Administration said it is seeking $10 billion from Congress while rapidly deploying the $12.5 billion already approved and accelerating key work on telecom and radar.
- Industry and the FAA have identified a Common Automation Platform as a top priority and estimate replacing separate en route, terminal, and oceanic automation systems would cost about $10 billion.
- Work already under way includes replacing copper voice lines with fiber, installing electronic flight strips and surface‑surveillance tools, converting analog radios to digital, and planning a condensed three‑year push to update radar and telecom systems.
- The coalition and the FAA call for stronger congressional oversight and monthly public reporting via the FAA’s dashboard to ensure projects finish, reduce outage risk, and avoid leaving incompatible interim systems in place.