The FAA has a consistent and poor track record of modernizing air traffic control, with past projects like the Advanced Automation System (AAS) being catastrophic failures due to constantly changing requirements and ignoring controller input.
The current NextGen initiative's core system, ERAM (En Route Automation Modernization), is significantly flawed, behind schedule, and over budget, struggling with basic functions like tracking and handing off aircraft.
Despite critical reliability issues and warnings from inspectors and controllers, the FAA is forcing ERAM into operational use, requiring controllers to "work around" known bugs, which raises safety concerns and echoes past mistakes.
The FAA’s track record on revamping air traffic control is not exactly stellar. Now some of the lessons learned are being ignored. Will we ever learn? For an industry where speed is measured in hundreds of knots, changes in technology do not arrive quickly or easily to aviation.
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