Advanced Air Traffic Control System Installed At Philadelphia Airport

The first Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) has been installed at Philadelphia International Airport according to the the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

STARS replaces older-generation technology with an advanced air traffic system with greater capability to meet capacity needs for years to come.

STARS represents an important milestone in the FAA’s ongoing plans to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system.

Benefits from the new system include synchronizing data from up to 16 different radars, capturing accurate local weather, and tracking as many as 1,350 aircraft at a time over a 60-mile radius.

By integrating this data, STARS gives controllers a picture of the sky that is as accurate and detailed as technologically possible.

The newly commissioned system is in the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) that controls aircraft within the 60 miles of airspace surrounding airports.

Controllers use the system to separate and sequence aircraft, provide traffic alerts and weather advisories, and vector arriving and departing traffic.

Other new equipment supporting Philadelphia that make it one of the country’s most modernized facilities includes: a new Airport Surveillance Radar Model 11 (ASR-11) that supplies digital data to STARS; a runway safety alerting system called the Airport Movement Area Safety System (AMASS); Precision Runway Monitor (PRM) radar that allows pilots to perform precision approaches; an automated pre-departure flight clearance system called Tower Data Link Service (TDLS); and a new TRACON facility featuring innovative design features for air traffic control.

Under a joint FAA and Department of Defense program, STARS will eventually replace computers and displays at more than 300 air traffic control facilities nationwide.

In addition to Philadelphia, other FAA deployments scheduled for this year include Portland, OR; Boston, MA; Miami, FL; Milwaukee, WI; Port Columbus, OH; San Antonio; and Seattle/Tacoma, WA.

The agency plans to deploy STARS at facilities deemed most critical over the next several years as funding permits.

Sites with the greatest need–the highest growth in air traffic combined with older, less-reliable equipment–will receive STARS the soonest.