Hank.Walker%CMU-CS-UNH@sri-unix.UUCP (07/19/84)
>From ELECTRONICS 7/12/84:
Supercomputers and satellite-based radio positioning systems should form the
backbone of the nation's next generation of air-traffic-control systems.
But unless the Federal Aviation Administration rethinks its 10-year-old
modernization strategy, billions of dollars will be spent on technology that
will be obsolete and in need of replacement by the mid-1990s, warns the
General Accounting Office. "It's just another example of a Federal agency
failing to keep up with the latest technological developments," notes
Douglas Cannon, a senior systems analyst who helped prepare the GAO's
critique. For example, the FAA wants to equip its 20 air-traffic-control
centers with new scanning-beam radar systems at a time when users throughout
the world are saying that satellites may offer significantly better
coverage, accuracy, and capacity at a lower total cost. "It just doesn't
make sense to take an interim step when a leap is within our means,"
concludes Cannon.
The message hasn't been lost on Capitol Hill. First of all, the House, in
its 1985 appropriations bill for the Department of Transportation, says that
the FAA must submit a full report answering the GAO's concerns 45 days
before any purchase of new hardware. Second, the FAA must prove that the
proposed equipment will be able to satisfy its future software needs.
Finally, the lawmakers have cut $20 million from the agency's budget for
ground-based radars and put a freeze on spending until the FAA produces a
study on the feasibility of a space-based air-traffic-control ssytem.