Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 5, 2026
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
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The US awarded radar contracts to RTX and Indra as part of a $12.5B air traffic control overhaul, addressing safety and congestion issues.
Jan 5 (Reuters) - The United States awarded contracts on Monday to RTX Corp and Spain's Indra Sistemas to supply new radars for its aging air traffic control system, a major step in a multi-billion-dollar overhaul, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
The awards are a key part of a $12.5 billion plan Congress approved last year to overhaul the nation's air traffic control system. The effort follows decades of complaints over airport congestion and technology failures and has gained urgency after a recent series of high-profile safety incidents.
Duffy's statement did not say how much the contracts were worth, but U.S. Federal Aviation Administration head Bryan Bedford said last month the agency is committing $6 billion by year-end on air traffic control telecom infrastructure and radar surveillance systems.
The agency has said another $20 billion will be needed to complete the full air traffic control system upgrade.
"While our air travel system is the safest in the world, most of our radars date back to the 1980s. It's unacceptable," Duffy said.
The Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control network's woes have been years in the making, but a rush of high-profile mishaps, near-misses and a catastrophic crash last January between a U.S. Army helicopter and regional American Airlines jet that killed 67 has spiked public alarm.
The contracts will contribute to replacing up to 612 radars by June 2028 with modern, commercially available surveillance radars. Replacements are scheduled to begin this quarter and will prioritize high-traffic areas, the statement said.
The project will install replacement surface radars at 44 airports, acquire 27,625 radios and add 110 weather stations in Alaska.
A 2023 report said the Federal Aviation Administration communications system had been outdated for years and the agency could no longer get spare parts for many systems.
In November, the FAA said it has picked Peraton, a national security company owned by Veritas Capital, as project manager to overhaul the aging U.S. air traffic control system.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Air traffic control is a service that manages the safe and orderly flow of air traffic in the skies and at airports, ensuring that aircraft are safely separated and directed.
Radar systems use radio waves to detect and locate objects, such as aircraft, by bouncing signals off them and measuring the time it takes for the signals to return.
The FAA is the national aviation authority of the United States, responsible for regulating civil aviation, overseeing air traffic control, and ensuring the safety of air travel.
Telecommunications infrastructure refers to the physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of telecommunication services, including networks, hardware, and software.
A modernization plan outlines the strategies and actions needed to update and improve existing systems, processes, or technologies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
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