A national security and technology firm will manage the Trump administration’s ambitious, multibillion-dollar effort to build a “brand new” air traffic control system, the administration announced Thursday.
The winning company, northern Virginia-based Peraton, had been competing against a joint bid from Parsons and IBM for the so-called prime integrator contract. Peraton will play a key part in the modernization initiative, which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wants to complete by the end of 2028.
Duffy began to tout the idea in the wake of January’s deadly midair crash between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. He told reporters in March that he wanted to build a “brand new” system.
The project envisions a sweeping overhaul of the national airspace’s aging technology and infrastructure. Over the summer, Congress approved a roughly $12.5 billion “down payment” for telecommunications upgrades, replacing radars and consolidation of some larger air traffic control facilities, among other actions.
