Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says it will take a maximum of 18 months to "rebuild the air traffic control system" if Congress will up-front the funding. But it sounds like the scope of the overhaul he was describing might be limited to modernization of communications systems. In a 10-minute interview aired by Fox on Saturday, Duffy cited copper wire, wired headsets and other technology "kind of out of 1980" that will be swapped out for fiber optics and modern gear in the ATC centers. He said wants the funding first, rather than spreading it out in a series of appropriations over the next eight to ten years. The FAA is testing satellite-based communications using Starlink terminals in Alaska and New Jersey but Duffy did not mention that program specifically.
At least someone got his ear as to what’s ailing the “ATC infrastructure”. It’s the remnants of our country’s infrastructure that our Telephone Companies want to abandon or have the government pay to replace, the old copper wiring out there going to remote sites. It’s the same wiring going to people’s homes down that country road out of a central office. There are already very modern and redundant networks of fiber currently under contract to the FAA, but that “last mile” of copper is quite problematic. How much will it cost to go out to all these remote sites? But it can be replaced by things like cell service, or even satellite, I guess (might be an issue whenever a heavy storm passes over a site, “can you hear me now?”) Hopefully this it is just a replacement of that last mile by either technology, vs trying to replace existing fiber with either. Funny how it’s made to look like it’s the “FAA’s aging air traffic control systems” when elements the FAA owns have been replaced multiple times, and it’s the private infrastructure, at least in this case, that is the issue.
Hopefully this doesn’t mean ATC will be going to wireless headsets.
With the number of times I’ve been on calls where someone drops off and then rejoins with “sorry, my wireless headset died” or “sorry, my wireless headset wasn’t connecting”, I would hate to have that happen even 1/4th of the time with ATC.
More money? We’re nearly $37T in debt, we’re broke! You will have to be more creative and do without even more money, or you will probably be replaced.
Are you able to make a coherent comment without your TDS shining through? Where were your comments like this when mayor Pete was in charge, or did the whole system just go to hell since mid January of this year?
Dream on. Every few years another one comes along with yet another grand plan. Whether it’s equipment upgrade, needed or not, or the grand staffing plan. Whatever is spoken, and in this case even with a stated 18 month completed vision, never happens. That person leaves, either voluntary or removed, then the next person arrives with their grand plan. And we begin again. All the while the troops in the trenches will continue to make it work during their mandatory six day work week. And that’s the truth. (34 years FAA).
Hard to swallow that you can have a mid-air and then say it has “nothing to do with ATC”. It tells me he doesn’t understand the ATC system we operate in. Also I wish he would have said something about putting a new FAA Administrator and Deputy in place since Elon fired the previous ones. The hardest part of his job will be dealing with him.
There it is! Out with whatever is in place now, and in with something that Musk can make money on. This is so incredibly obvious, and yet fully 1/2 of the population, and 1/2 of the lawmakers, don’t seem to care.
There is less new in Secretary Duffy’s announcement than it seems. In 2023 the FAA announced that it had chosen Verizon for a major system upgrade that would take several years and cost some $2.4 billion to shift the FAA’s systems from an outdated copper-wire network to the kind of fiber-optic backbone that is well-established. What’s new is that Secretary Duffy wants the money now, not dribbled out over the coming years.
Apparently Duffy thinks that the mid-air in DC, the medical flight crash in Philly, the near miss in Chicago, etc. could have been prevented or avoided by using fiber optic cabling and wireless headsets. He also thinks that he can “turn things around” in 18 months. Good luck with that. How long does it take to hire, train and field a new controller? IMHO, ATC’s problems stem more from a shortage of experienced controllers that from old copper wires. Yes, the system needs to be modernized, but that will take a lot longer than 18 months and no, privatizing is not the solution.
From the article, it seems he said on Fox News that those crashes were not caused by ATC, so to be fair I don’t think he was saying going to fiber optic cabling and wireless headsets would have prevented those issues.
Where it all started:
Who was US President in 2013? That would be Barack Obama. Refer to Brigida V. US Dept of Transportation.
FAA had a very successful program for Controller Training in 27 different Colleges. It was decided that the program was too white. So additional testing was designed to weed out some of the whiteness.
Air Traffic Controller became to many a dirty word. Normal staffing level is 14,600, current staffing level 10,800.
President Trump and Elon Musk did not fire the last FAA Administrator. He resigned on Dec 13, 2024 effective on Jan 20, 2025. Apparently due to mental illness.
“Mountain States Legal Foundation has stepped up to challenge the governments reckless disregard for public safety and its insult to the rule of law and the US Constitution’s equal protection guarantee”. This will likely cost the taxpayers billions.
Keep the old with the new. However many new systems. Never throw out the old because safety says throwing anything that works away will eventually cause an accident; not having the old to use in an emergency. Should be not talking about a lot of space; so no problem. Tell Duffy he needs to breathe more northern cold air to energize his brain. I know he knows what I am talking about.