by Donald Wood
Last updated: 8:00 AM ET, Tue January 6, 2026
The United States Government took a major step forward Monday
in its overhaul of the country’s aging
air traffic control system by awarding two companies new contracts to
supply new radar systems.
According to Reuters.com,
the contracts awarded to RTX Corp and Spain's Indra Sistemas are part of a
$12.5 billion plan Congress approved last year to overhaul the air traffic
control system in America.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy did not reveal how much
the contracts were worth, but Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) head Bryan
Bedford revealed last month that the government pledged “$6 billion by year-end
on air traffic control telecom infrastructure and radar surveillance systems.”
FAA officials acknowledged it would need about $20 billion
to complete the full air traffic control system upgrade, which would aim to
address issues such as airport congestion, technology failures, and
high-profile safety incidents.
“While our air travel system is the safest in the world,
most of our radars date back to the 1980s,” Secretary Duffy told Reuters. “It's
unacceptable.”
In total, RTX Corp and Indra Sistemas will be contracted to
replace up to 612 radars by June 2028 with modern, commercially available
surveillance radars. The deal also calls for installing surface radars at 44
airports, as well as 27,625 radios and 110 weather stations in Alaska.
In November, the FAA announced it had selected national
security company Peraton to be the project manager for the overhaul of America’s
air
traffic control system.
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