FAA Signs $2.8B Deal to Retire 612 Cold-War-Era Radars

The Last Blip on a 1960s Screen

Inside the dim towers of America’s busiest airports, air-traffic controllers have been guiding 737s across washed-out green scopes that first lit up when Kennedy was in the White House. On Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration quietly ended that era.

A $2.8 Billion Handshake

After a bruising two-year competition, the FAA awarded twin contracts—$1.7 billion to Raytheon Technologies and $1.1 billion to L3Harris—to rip out 612 antique radar systems and install digital, GPS-based sensors the size of a suburban refrigerator. The first new unit goes live at Seattle-Tacoma International in 2026; the last relic is scheduled to power down in 2033.

“Controllers will see airplanes the way gamers see dragons—in 3-D, zero lag, zero ghost tracks,” said FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker at a briefing in Washington.

Why It Took So Long

The network, known as the Air-Route Surveillance Radar (ARSR), was designed to watch for Soviet bombers, not 5-mile separation between Southwest shuttles. Spare parts are now scavenged from museum displays; one Texas technician admitted he once used a coffee can to shield a waveguide.

• Capacity: New arrays can track 2,000 targets simultaneously—four times the legacy limit.
• Weather: Sophisticated algorithms filter storm clutter that currently forces controllers to widen spacing.
• Carbon: More direct routes are expected to trim 2.4 million tons of CO₂ over two decades.

The Hidden Price of Delay

Industry analysts warn the FAA is skating on thin ice. A 2022 inspector-general audit found 42 percent of ARSR sites failed reliability tests; outages have already forced Phoenix and Philadelphia to ground departures. “We’ve been one lightning strike away from a regional ground-stop,” said a senior controller who requested anonymity.

What Passengers Will Notice

Nothing—and that’s the point. The first visible change will be fewer due to ATC delay announcements. By 2030, the FAA expects the new net to save 14.3 million minutes of passenger time annually, the equivalent of 27 human lifespans given back to travelers.

Still, the timetable is aggressive. Congress has appropriated only 60 percent of the $4.5 billion the FAA says it ultimately needs. If future budgets tighten, the agency may have to choose between modernizing radars or replacing the aging computer system that actually puts blips on screens.

For now, controllers are savoring a rare win. In Atlanta’s tower break room, someone taped a cartoon of a radar screen wearing a retirement sash: 1962-2026, Thanks for the Blips.