The FAA has selected a vendor to replace hundreds of analog air traffic control (ATC) communications switchboards with digital voice switches as it continues to modernize the nation’s ATC system.
Rohde & Schwarz USA, the American subsidiary of the German electronics manufacturer, said April 21 that it won a contract worth almost $5 billion to replace up to 462 antiquated voice switches—many of them decades old—with modern systems designed to allow controllers to more quickly and easily toggle between radio channels.
Rohde & Schwarz’s Certium voice communication system (VCS) was installed at Allegheny County Airport (KAGC) in Pennsylvania in August, marking the first new voice switch under the contract. Federal officials said last week at the Modern Skies Summit in Washington, D.C., that more than 40 have since been installed. Per Rohde & Schwarz, locations include airports and towers in Texas, Delaware, Idaho, and Washington.
The nearly 800 voice switches across en route, terminal, and tower facilities within the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) depend on a technology called Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) that dates back to the 1960s. Many vendors no longer sell or refurbish TDM technology, which is increasingly expensive to maintain.
The FAA was already modernizing ATC communications under its Voice over Internet Protocol Communication Enterprise (VoICE) program. VoICE is transitioning TDM systems to VoIP-enabled voice switches, designed to cooperate with the thousands of new radios, radars, and other systems the Transportation Department (DOT) is installing. VoIP systems also enable capabilities such as dynamic re-sectorization—when a controller shifts airspace boundaries in response to weather, equipment outages, or other traffic flow constraints.
The DOT estimates that VoICE upgrades would not be complete until 2037 or 2038. It is accelerating the effort under its $12.5 billion Brand New ATC System (BNATCS) plan, which also calls to modernize radars, radios, towers, and other ATC infrastructure. In January, RTX and Indra won contracts to install up to 612 new radars.
Rohde & Schwarz’s Certium VCS replaces buttons on a switchboard with digital interfaces, color-coded to show the status of different radios, their signal strength, and the number of controllers using them. ATCs can customize the displays to their liking.
Per the company’s website, Certium is “flexible enough for both small towers and nationwide systems with multiple area control centers and hundreds of controller working positions.” It also supports remote or virtual towers. The system is aligned to Eurocae standards for aviation communications and can continue to function with multiple outages.
Rohde & Schwarz said it will manufacture the digital voice switches in Maryland and Texas. It opened its Maryland facility earlier this year and expanded its Texas site to support increased demand from BNATCS.
The company also provides systems for TSA screening services, U.S. Navy communications, and U.S. Coast Guard search and rescue operations.
Progress on ATC Modernization
The selection of a digital voice switch vendor continues the momentum for DOT, which last week provided a one-year update on the ATC modernization effort. The initiative spans 4,600 FAA facilities and more than 50 vendors.
Officials said that half of the antiquated copper wiring that transmits ATC radar and communications data has been replaced with fiber-optic, wireless, and satellite connections. That should help reduce blackouts like those at Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR) in New Jersey last year.
About 3,000 out of 27,000 planned radio upgrades have been completed across 250 sites. Electronic flight strips now replace paper strips and Terminal Flight Data Management (TFDM) systems are installed at 17 of 89 planned towers.
Of the 200 airports scheduled for new surface awareness systems, 54 have received them and 42 have begun installation. Two of 53 planned surface movement radar (SMR) upgrades are complete in Houston, with more underway in San Diego, New Orleans, and Newark.
BNATCS also calls for Enterprise-Information Display Systems (E-IDS) at 450 facilities, tower simulation systems at 117 towers, and 174 new weather camera systems in Alaska.
The $12.5 billion Congress allocated toward BNATCS last year covers much of the early work. But according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, it is earmarked for specific purposes. Duffy has requested an additional $20 billion to roll out a common automation platform (CAP)—designed to consolidate existing en route and terminal systems—and an AI-powered predictive software.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said last week that the software will manage trajectories for 55,000 daily IFR flights, using predictive analytics to flag potential air traffic disruptions well in advance.
Frank Matus, director of uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) integration for Thales—rumored to be a vendor for the software—told FLYING that the FAA envisions predicting weather, traffic, and other airspace conditions, days, weeks, or even months in advance.
