Thursday, September 26, 2024

US Air Traffic Systems Won't Get a Tech Refresh Before 2030

The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) air traffic control (ATC) systems are perilously out of date, but don't expect replacements anytime soon, says the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).

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... In a report released Monday, the GAO said that 51 of the FAA's 138 ATC systems " more than a third " were unsustainable due to a lack of parts, shortfalls in funding to sustain them, or a lack of technology refresh funding to replace them. A further 54 systems were described as "potentially unsustainable" for similar reasons, with the added caveat that tech refresh funding was available to them.

"FAA has 64 ongoing investments aimed at modernizing 90 of the 105 unsustainable and potentially unsustainable systems," the GAO said in its report. "However, the agency has been slow to modernize the most critical and at-risk systems."

The report said the seemingly perilous status of 17 systems was "especially concerning" as these are deemed to have critical operational impact at the same time as being unsustainable and having extended completion dates -- the first of them won't be modernized until 2030 at the earliest. Others aren't planned to be complete until 2035, and four of the 17 "most critical and at-risk FAA ATC systems" have no modernization plans at all.
faa-critical-atc-systems ...



#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-09-25 03:11 PM

Personally, I don't fly anymore due to medical issues (have issues with the pressure changes), so this won't affect me.

Wow, searching around for information, I just learned a new word: enplanement.

That seems to be a word used in Fed stats about the number of people who fly. As in ...

Passenger Boarding (Enplanement) and All-Cargo Data for U.S. Airports
www.faa.gov

OK, I also discovered that the faa.gov site is not the one to see the number of enplanements per year for the US.

So... back to the search engine, but armed with a new search term to use... :)

Found it!

Bureau of Transportation Statistics
www.transtats.bts.gov

...
Enplaned Passengers (million) in 2023: 789
...

btw, lots of other fun info at that link, if you're curious.


OK, now where was I?

Oh, yeah. As I noted previously, I don't fly anymore, but for the 789 million enplanements in 2023, I might suggest that this issue with the FAA's equipment might be a concern.



#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-09-26 06:17 PM

We have corrupt politicians who give our nation and its wealth away to foreigners. That's been going on for too long. Kamala will be worse.

#3 | Posted by Robson at 2024-09-26 08:20 PM

@#3

Can your current alias be any more robotic?


#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-09-26 08:28 PM

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