At the drawing board level and in the halls of aviation "think tanks," it has been clear for some time that Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) will be one of the primary cornerstones of the Next Generation Air Transportation System. Recently, however, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has taken several crucial steps to actually move ADS-B technology from the "drawing board" into the real world. On August 30, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded a contract to a team led by ITT Corporation to develop, install, operate, and maintain a nationwide ADS-B infrastructure. The sheer size of the contract is a pretty good indication of how seriously the FAA is committed to ADS-B. The contract has a potential value of $1.8 billion over 18 years.
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