The United States is to replace hundreds of ageing air traffic control radar systems as part of a major modernisation of its aviation infrastructure, federal officials have announced.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have selected two companies, RTX and Spanish technology firm Indra, to replace up to 612 ground-based aviation radars by June 2028. Some of the existing systems date back to the 1980s.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said work on the Radar System Replacement programme would begin early this year, initially focusing on high-traffic areas of US airspace.
The project forms part of the government’s multibillion-dollar Brand New Air Traffic Control System (BNATCS) plan, funded through a $12.5bn allocation approved by Congress last July. The wider programme also includes the installation of thousands of new radios, hundreds of digital voice switches and more than 100 weather stations in Alaska.
Mr Bedford said many of the FAA’s current radar units had exceeded their intended service life, making them costly to maintain and increasingly difficult to support.
According to the DOT, the FAA currently operates multiple types of surveillance radar, some of which were first installed in the 1970s. Under the new programme, 14 different radar configurations will be consolidated into a smaller number of modern systems.
RTX, through its Collins Aerospace subsidiary, has been awarded a $438m contract to supply both cooperative and non-cooperative radar systems that are already in use within the US national airspace system. The new radars will initially be maintained by private contractors, with the option for the FAA to take over maintenance in the future.
The radar upgrades will be delivered in partnership with Peraton, the prime contractor overseeing the wider BNATCS programme.
The overhaul goes beyond radar replacement. Plans also include switching from copper wiring to fibre-optic cables, moving air traffic communications from analogue to digital systems, and building new control towers and facilities over the next three years.
The FAA previously invested heavily in its long-running NextGen modernisation programme, which ended recently after more than 20 years. However, a government watchdog later found it had failed to deliver expected improvements. Official figures show that flight delays caused by equipment issues were three times higher in 2025 than the average recorded between 2010 and 2024.
Officials say the new programme is designed to create a safer, more reliable and future-ready air traffic control system for the US aviation network.
