Spanish company Indra will join Arlington, Virginia’s RTX in replacing the FAA’s network of 612 ground radar sites as part of the technical update of the air traffic control system. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced the joint contract Monday and said the two companies will “contribute to replacing up to 612 radars by June 2028 with modern, commercially available surveillance radars.” It’s not clear what the actual contribution will be, and no costs were attached to the announcement. The most recent appropriations bill included $12.5 billion for new ATC projects, and the radars are a big-ticket item on a list of several dozen included in the bill. The first new installations will start in the next few weeks and high-traffic areas are being prioritized.
Radars are a bread-and-butter product for RTX, and it has many contracts in the defense industry for everything from advanced over-the-horizon systems to truck-mounted units for the battlefield. Indra Sistemas is a major Spanish tech company that builds gear for defense and air traffic management systems. It’s not clear from the announcement which company will build what in the new system, but one of the benefits cited by Duffy is that the contract will “consolidate the 14 different configurations in the NAS today, simplifying maintenance and logistics.” Some of the existing systems date back to the 1980s.
The FAA solicits the aviation public for ideas and comments from the US aviation public ending in mid to late December regarding upgrades, equipment, procedures, etc for ATC long overdue improvements. Now we get an article in AvBrief dated 1/6/26 that two defense contractors, (US)Raytheon/RTX and (Overseas) Indra with offices in 46 countries and 60,000 employes have been awarded THE contracts for ATC radar hardware/software/systems integration overhaul. Once again false patronage of us by the FAA while the government already has made their decision. Seems to be the same MO negotiating with various “adversaries” for peace and economic cooperation deals, and while in those negotiations, launching a military attack. We are asked for ideas for ATC improvement while the contracts for those improvements have long been solidified. Not only solidified but with high end defense contractors whose focus as described on their website is global military surveillance, intelligence, and lethality. Just what we need for civilian commercial/GA aviation…more surveillance, intelligence, and lethality. It’s like asking us for ideas on a GA 2 place trainer to replace the ubiquitous C150 but have already signed a contract for FA18 Growlers as suitable, affordable, and easily maintained replacements! Just think of the surveillance, intelligence, and the legality improvements over the various generations of C150’s currently in service!