Summary: In late 1981, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began a modernization program to replace and upgrade the national airspace system's equipment and facilities to meet expected increases in traffic volume, enhance air safety, and increase the efficiency of the air traffic control system. Historically, the modernization program has experienced difficulty meeting cost, schedule, and performance goals. As a result, promised benefits from the new equipment have been delayed, and the aviation community's confidence in FAA's ability to manage the modernization effort has been weakened. During the past year, FAA, in collaboration with the aviation community, has taken steps to restructure its multibillion-dollar modernization program to achieve a more gradual and cost-effective approach by, among other things, limiting the scope of projects to more manageable segments. This contrasts with the previous approach in which the agency sought to develop highly complex software-intensive systems all at once and often set unrealistic cost, schedule, and performance goals. Under FAA's new approach, the agency plans to implement a new way of managing air traffic, known as "free flight," to improve the system's safety, efficiency, and capacity. Under its most recent financial plan, FAA estimates the cost of modernization will total nearly $42 billion from fiscal years 1982 through 2004--a $3.8 billion increase since the agency's last financial plan in February 1998. In addition to the status of the overall modernization program, GAO discusses the status of 18 key modernization projects and the challenges facing FAA's overall modernization program.
