By Jacob Burg

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to commit $6 billion by the end of the year to upgrades to the nation’s air traffic control telecommunications infrastructure and radar systems, which it plans to deploy by the end of 2028, the agency’s administrator said on Dec. 17.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford testified to Congress on Wednesday to give updates on the agency’s progress in its ambitious three- to four-year air traffic control upgrade and modernization project, which will include the United States investing in replacing old copper telecommunication lines, decades-old radar systems, and implementing ground surveillance technology on runways.

Issues with the FAA’s aging telecomm infrastructure led to a series of critical communications blackouts at Newark Liberty International Airport earlier this year.

“By the end of the year, we will have six to six and a half billion [dollars] of the One Big, Beautiful Bill committed to modernization,’ Bedford told lawmakers, referring to President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and spending bill package passed by Congress in July.

The bill saw Congress allocate $12.5 billion toward the FAA’s modernization project, but Bedford has said the FAA needs another $20 billion to complete the three- to four-year effort.

Bedford said on Wednesday that the FAA is aiming to deploy the new infrastructure upgrades by the end of 2028.

“We took what was an existing 20-year FAA telecom modernization strategy that we would complete in 2038, and we compressed that into three, two-and-a-half years, to be honest,” the administrator said.

Bedford also echoed what Duffy said during Trump’s Cabinet meeting earlier this month—that the FAA has completed roughly one-third of the transition from copper to fiber optic communication lines.

The FAA said on Dec. 4 that it had chosen Peraton, a national security and technology firm owned by Veritas Capital, to be the “prime integrator” to lead the upgrade of the United States’ air traffic control system.

“The company’s expertise with integrating complex tech platforms and successful collaboration with federal government agencies have positioned them well to execute on this ambitious timeline,” the FAA wrote in a news release.

As prime integrator, Peraton will guide the FAA’s modernization project, “keep it on track, and support the FAA as new capabilities and technologies are deployed across the national air space,” the agency said.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Bedford said Peraton agreed to accept $200 million less than initially planned in overseeing the project at the behest of Trump.

Peraton did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

The firm said it was a “defining moment not only for Peraton, but for the future of aviation in the United States and beyond” when the Trump administration awarded it the contract.

“Today, the United States government has entrusted Peraton with a historic opportunity to fundamentally transform America’s air traffic control system, which will modernize our national airspace to ensure it remains the safest, most efficient, and most advanced in the world,” the company said in a statement.

Reuters contributed to this report.