The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded a $135m contract to the US-based Raytheon Company to upgrade air traffic control systems at 22 airports across the country.
Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) will be implemented at these 22 airport sites.
Go deeper with GlobalData
This implementation will complete the modernisation of NextGen terminal automation of every major FAA National Air Space (NAS) facility by December 2019.
The terminal automation at the airports is provided with a single operational baseline. This helps in improving safety and increasing efficiency in NAS.
STARS has replaced many versions of terminal automation systems and is a standard system followed both by the FAA and the Department of Defense.
The system provides better safety and capacity management possibilities to terminal automation in the commercial as well as defence segments of the airports.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataRaytheon Air Traffic Systems managing director Michael Espinola said: "Raytheon and the FAA are together providing a safety-critical platform across the US.
"This platform has the processing capacity to allow greatly improved efficiency for the controllers, airlines and flying public."
STARS receives and handles weather records, target reports and other non-target messages from both terminal sensors and the digital sensors of airplanes.
It tracks primary and secondary surveillance targets and supplies information regarding the position of aircraft to the enhanced traffic management system.
It also tracks unsafe aircraft proximities in the air as well as on the runways.
Raytheon has been providing air traffic management (ATM) technology and services to civil and military sections across the globe for more than 65 years.
Raytheon’s ATM solutions, which track over 60% of the world’s airspace, are operational in more than 60 countries.
Earlier, in 2014, Raytheon had secured a $350m FAA contract modification to upgrade 135 air traffic control centres to the STARS configuration.
