The FAA held an Air Traffic Control Summit Tuesday in which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy released details on the progress of ATC modernization. He said his department has already made significant improvements and expects the program to be complete by the end of 2028. He said about half of the copper wire connections at ATC facilities have been replaced by fiber optics and new digital radios are being distributed to facilities across the country. New electronic flight strip systems are being installed to replace the old system of passing paper strips and modern radars are replacing decades-old equipment.
Duffy credited air traffic control staff with making the best of the antiquated systems and maintaining an enviable safety record. “Is flying safe? Is the airspace safe? “Of course it’s safe. It is the safest mode of transportation. … But it’s not safe because we have the best systems in place; it’s safe because we have fantastic air traffic controllers and highly skilled pilots,” he said. On Monday, to promote the summit, Duffy released the following video on X promoting the multifaceted initiative and put in a plug for Congress to fund further initiatives beyond the $12.5 billion in improvements already funded (radars, fiber-optic connections, digital radio and flight strips) to “finish the job.”
ATC Modernization is HERE
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) April 20, 2026
This is exactly what we’re doing at USDOT ⬇️
STAY TUNED FOR TOMORROW when we walk America through it all ✈️ pic.twitter.com/1cQfVWF1BX
I stopped watching at “brought to you by President Trump and Congressional Republicans” (and probably before blaming the current system on Biden). Shameful.
Unfortunately, Harry, when you refuse to engage, especially for the reason that you simply don’t like the person sending the message, you relinquish all your power. It puts you on the sidelines, and it has the unintended consequence of strengthening the position of those who claim Trump’s opponents are simply infected with “TDS”. Better to argue the points of policy or execution that you disagree with, and offer alternatives, which has 2 benefits: 1. It demonstrates that you are a person of reason, not someone blinded by emotion, and 2. It lends credibility to your position and might sway those who are undecided on the issues themselves.
Thanks, Tim. I’ll just say that your assumptions about me are entirely unfounded, and incorrect.
While it didn’t outright blame the Biden administration, it was certainly framed in such a way to imply that the “Congressional Democrats” were to blame for why this hasn’t been done sooner. These are needed updates, but their political messaging is completely unnecessary.
True. But how often do we see discussions on this forum that include “political messaging” when it is completely unnecessary? And that is true from BOTH sides of the aisle.
Um, Ken… Duffy’s message specifically mentions a political party. So this is one article where politics cannot be excluded from the conversation.
Also, purely as a factual matter, in 18 of the last 30 years Republicans have controlled both houses of congress, Democrats have controlled both for 6 years and control has been split 6 years. So, maybe something about people who live in glass houses . . .
They seem to have forgotten when the Republicans under Bush shut down the government over FAA funding. For years, they just refused to fund anything beyond the bare minimum. As they say, the chickens have come home to roost, Or something like that…
Removing the politics from this (though the video certainly did not), while it was a slick marketing video, here it is April 21st and at 4 PM, where’s the plan release?
Anyway, slick marketing with some real glaring gaps. What was the 12.5B spent on already? Seems the system, after 12.5 is not up and running so, the FAA needs more. How much? Why?
Now, I can’t speak to physical changes, but as a software developer, I can say that even a reasonably well written legacy system cannot be converted within a year, or two, or three. Duffy’ went and did some mixed metaphors as I figure most backend FAA systems are mainframe based and written in FORTRAN, Pascal, or even ADA, not windows 95 computers (FFS). You cannot just rewrite legacy code, code that as he said, been around for decades in a year and let us not even talk about testing once run. He said changes will happen in 90 airports, okay, but what system is built to ensure data transfer between modern airport systems and those on the waitlist.
Replacing hardware cannot happen in a year, again even two as I am sure the FAA would be doing extensive test on each new system and making sure there is compatibility with *ALL* radios in *ALL* planes flying or whelp…gonna be a mess.
Listen, if Obama put this type of tripe out I’d write the same thing, but thing is he or Biden would not have, because transforming the US aviation airspace control and communication is a multiple year event and reasonable people understand that. It took getting to the moon 9 years and yes, this is as complicated for different reasons. Besides, this was done already:
President Obama signed the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 on February 14, 2012, authorizing billion to fund the FAA through 2015. The legislation aimed to modernize the U.S. air traffic control system, primarily by transitioning from ground-based radar to satellite-based GPS technology (NextGen), reducing delays, and integrating unmanned drones into the national airspace
That was $63B and yes, his administration didn’t seem to finish the job, but that was in 2012, Feb so in a way, Trump came into office while that plan was still in effect.
This comes across more like a vaporware marketing pitch by people seeing another government system to fleece. Kinda of like how DOGE rewrote SS and MC software…oh right, they didn’t, but boy howdy did they get A LOT of data to sell.
So I’ll toss one political view in, It finishes with “This is on Trump Time”. Is that the same time where prices drop on day one, inflation drops on day one, no more foreign wars, medical costs will go down…well, once they have a plan?
If somehow this is real, there is an actual project plan where the public has access to benchmarks, completion dates, detailed costs etc then of course I would support such a program. The moment when Congress asks Duffy for a detailed break down of where the money is going and he stalls, or in 6 months when no real actions has happened….yeah, Trump time.
Hold on, Justin, you’re not suggesting that any of the billions could wind up being what is often referred to as “waste, fraud and abuse” like the kind rocket boy abolished? Or that some of those billions could wind up lining the pockets those close to power?
Are you?
Well now old pilot,
Waste, Fraud, Abuse; these come when there is no public review of government funding which (gasp) by law, is required.
Am I suggesting it has happened? Absolutely with one easy example, the Pentagon has not passed 11 audits and the American public, right now, does not have a clue how much this … excursion…is costing us.
Working on being as apolitical as I can, if a democratic President/Congress passed a budget to fund the FAA to modernize/upgrade/improve the ATC system, without impacting GA, Biz or Airlines, I want to see the budget. I want to see the completion dates, the contractors, where the spending goes. Since I am but a lowly citizen (paying for all this) I cannot demand it, but I would require my representatives to do so as my proxy. “Show me the money!”
Now, I would expect a conservative to at least have the same zeal, the same need to know where his or her dollars are being spent, not just relying on “Trust Me” if it was a republican established project. I would expect conservatives to be very mindful of where their tax dollars are spent and that it is not in lining the pockets of grifters, but actual work. I would expect that they are as concerned about their dollars spent on FAA projects as they are on social.
Fun fact, FAA funding *is* a social program because it serves the public; otherwise we’d have a privatized ATC and one can just imagine the money flow into pockets of for profit companies controlling our skies in that scenario.
So Old Timer, maybe I am.
Please, please just STOP. I just can’t take your logical, well thought out thoughts on this subject anymore. You are starting to give me hope that sane people still exist and we just can’t tolerate that!
I’ve been in aviation for more than 50 years on both sides of the radio and worked extensively with the FAA from the outside looking in. This is one of the best written posts on this subject I’ve ever read. Thank you!
Oh gosh. I can’t remember now, but wasn’t it about one year ago when Duffy, I believe, published a lengthy proclamation of what exactly was going to be done buy, what ’28. It was around the time the facility kept losing their radar and radio. It included new everything I believe, including new facilities, Centers, radios, and other huge projects. Oh yea, many more controllers hired and certified. I get so confused. I used to hear this story of promises for the 38 years I worked for FAA.
Roger, I agree. The story keeps changing, but the promises never miss a meal.
There’s been a paradigm shift in the operation and purpose of top levels of government that isn’t easily accepted, in my view.
Getting programs enacted and completed for the FAA, ATC, GA, etc. no longer fall under the purview of traditional, representative government actions that centralized decision-making through shared power, bureaucracy, and legal checks – importantly allowing efficiency and consensus to drive motivation in government.
All motivation today is about loyalty and feigning worship to one person – this is the reference, the switch, that still is hard for some to understand – and this is the ‘fly trap’ the gullible and intellectual alike have equally fallen into. Even a Catholic Pope appears to be hovering near it. The real one, from Chicago.
It seems easier to forcast results like FAA modernization when this shift is seen and accepted.
Realization (seeing) and acceptance are not bed buddies. I believe the paradigm shift has definitely been realized but not accepted because it shouldn’t be. Acceptance of it infers an action of consent. The current forecast for FAA modernization and all other issues/programs is dense fog morning, noon, and night. If consent were given, that would indicate we are all very happy with the weather.
Just to be a bit clearer, acceptance does not always imply an action of consent.
My use of the word here is about recognizing a reality to reduce suffering (or burn off the fog), such as a parent accepting that their child is in pain to better help them. This type of acceptance does not mean agreeing with or consenting to the cause of the pain.
It can be passive or resigned or a call to action, each with their own particular motivations. Thanks for the response.
Why do I get the feeling that any ATC modernization program is just going to create more hassle, more expense, and more restrictions for us on the light end of GA, even those of us who only fly VFR from non-towered fields?
Still no update, Russ? Wow, that was quite an intro for just dead air….
Story is updated to reflect the updates, which were minimal.