Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy unveiled the plan at the department’s D.C.-based headquarters during an event that featured a slate of bipartisan lawmakers, top agency officials and leading representatives from the travel industry and related advocacy groups.
Duffy said the modernization initiative includes several brick-and-mortar components — such as rebuilding some air traffic control towers — but that “everything else that controls the airspace is going to be brand new.”
The approach he outlined heavily focuses on the adoption of new technologies, including replacing antiquated telecommunications networks with fiber optics, deploying a modernized flight management system, implementing new radios for air traffic controllers and installing ground radar systems at U.S. airports.
Duffy likened the current air traffic control technologies to flip phones, adding that “you can't build anything on top of the system that we now use.” He said, however, that adopting newer iPhone-like tech means that “you can actually get updates” and that you can then “build on top of what we have in place.”
To complete the plan, Duffy set forth an ambitious timeframe that he said is largely dependent upon the support of federal lawmakers.
“I can't do it by myself, and it's going to take the help of the Congress to make that happen,” he said, adding that “to do it in three or four years, we need all of the money up front.”
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a budget reconciliation proposal on April 30 th ..
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