Overview
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, speaking Tuesday at a Washington DOT summit, asked Congress for $10 billion to fund the software phase of the air traffic control upgrade.
- Officials reported tangible progress from last year’s $12.5 billion down payment, including replacing nearly half of copper lines, converting about 270 radio sites, adding surface awareness at 54 airports, and moving 17 towers to electronic flight strips.
- The FAA and partners are building digital twins of the National Airspace System using more than two decades of data to forecast conflicts before flights depart, with AI assisting planning while human controllers keep decision-making authority.
- Peraton, the program’s prime integrator, is using AI to spot schedule risks and supply gaps across roughly 4,600 FAA sites, and the contract includes penalties for delays as the effort targets completion by the end of 2028.
- The push follows a deadly January 2025 midair collision near Reagan National and telecom outages, with DOT citing a record 2,400 controller hires since March 2025 and House appropriators set to take up the next FAA funding bill starting May 21.