FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford this week defended the federal government’s choice of security and technology company Peraton to handle an expansive rebuild of the nation’s air traffic control (ATC) infrastructure.
At a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Tuesday, Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia asked Bedford why a relatively young company with “little to no experience” working with the FAA was given control of a contract that will likely be worth over $31 billion over several years.
“I don’t have a lot of confidence that this $31.5 billion overhaul of our air traffic control system being overseen by a private equity firm is in the best interests of the American people,” said Johnson, noting that Peraton is owned by New York investment management company Veritas Capital.
He also chided his colleagues for what he described as a lack of interest in the contractor selection process.
“This side, the legislative branch, doesn’t even know or care about how Peraton was chosen over a company, Parsons Corporation, that has extensive experience working with the FAA,” he said. “It seems like a pay-to-play situation, which is in keeping with everything else we know about this administration.”
Parsons confirmed to Reuters in September that it bid for the ATC modernization contract with IBM.
Bedford answered that Peraton was the best suited for the overhaul project out of all the companies considered.
“Peraton specifically has an expertise working with the Department of Defense and with NASA doing exactly what the FAA does not have an in-house expertise on, and that’s moving from our antiquated TDMI analog systems to digital VOIP, and also dealing in native cloud structure applications,” he said.
Peraton “put the entire DOD in the cloud,” Bedford added, and while Parsons is and will continue to be a valued FAA partner, it did not have the experience to execute that kind of data migration.
He also defended the integrity of the selection process, which he described as “transparent” and “diligent.” Bedford said career FAA staff made the recommendation for Peraton to him, and he passed its decision on to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
President Donald Trump did not interfere with the process, he added, and in fact “sharpened the pencil” by demanding a $200 million reduction in the fee cost.
“Just out of thin air?” Johnson said. “No rhyme or reason to it?”
Bedford did not directly reply to those remarks and moved on to answer another part of the congressman’s question.
New Modernization Plan
Peraton is headquartered in Virginia. It lists intelligence, space, cybersecurity, defense, homeland security, “citizen security,” and health as areas of focus.
Bedford and Duffy announced the company’s selection as “prime integrator” for the ATC project earlier this month.
The reconstruction plan calls for six new ATC centers and 15 towers with colocated TRACONs. The main focus, however, will be on replacing technology used by air traffic controllers, much of which dates to the 1970s and ’80s, with state-of-the-art telecommunications systems, radios, surveillance technology, and automation programs.
The White House has said it wants the rebuild finished by 2028.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July, sets aside $12.5 billion for ATC modernization, but Duffy estimates that another $20 billion will be needed to complete the project.
