The United States wants to upgrade its air traffic control system and say goodbye to Win95 and floppy disk

IT Home June 8th news, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) director recently announced an ambitious plan to upgrade the U.S. air traffic control (ATC) system to enter the 21st century. According to NPR, most ATC towers and other facilities currently feel like they are still stuck in the 20th century, with controllers using slips and floppy disks to transmit data, while their computers still run the Windows 95 operating system. While such stale systems may protect them from the recent massive CrowdStrike downtime, their aging poses a significant risk to critical infrastructure in the United States, and the FAA itself acknowledges that the condition of its existing hardware is no longer sustainable.

"Our goal is to completely replace the entire system and no longer use floppy disks or strips," Agent FAA Commissioner Chris Rochelow told the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy also pointed out earlier this week: "This is the most important infrastructure project in our country for decades. It is a cross-party consensus that everyone knows we must take action."

IT Home noted that the U.S. aviation industry has formed a coalition called "Modern Skies" to promote the ATC's modernization process and pointed out through advertising that current air traffic controls are still using floppy disks and some outdated technology to ensure flight safety.

However, upgrading an ATC system is not as simple as buying the latest gaming computer at a nearby computer city. First of all, some systems must not be turned off due to safety issues, and cannot be directly shut down and replaced with old parts like ordinary equipment. In addition, upgraded critical infrastructure must be able to withstand hacker attacks and other vulnerabilities, because even one intrusion can paralyze the country and cause losses of time, money and life.

FAA is currently investing heavily in maintaining its aging ATC systems, as these systems must operate 24/7. However, no matter how many repairs, maintenance or overhaul are performed, the aging problem of equipment will eventually appear. At present, the White House has not announced the specific costs of this system upgrade. The FAA has released an information consultation book to collect data from companies willing to undertake the challenges of upgrading the entire system and announced that it will hold several "Industry Day" events so that relevant companies can show their technologies and solutions to the Ministry of Transport.

Duffy said the Ministry of Transport hopes to complete the project within four years, but industry experts say the timing is unrealistic. No matter how long it will take in the end, U.S. air traffic control systems are now in urgent need of upgrades after decades of neglect.