IG Says FAA Having Difficulty Keeping The Project "On Track" In Congressional Testimony

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation heard testimony on long-term planning and interagency cooperation for the implementation of the Next Generation Air Traffic Control system, also know as NextGen, on Wednesday. During the hearing, a representative of the DOT said the FAA is "facing challenges" in keeping the program on track.

The hearing was the Subcommittee’s fourth look at the NextGen system in the 111th Congress.

Transportation committee chairman James Oberstar (D-MN) said modernizing and transforming our ATC system is a national priority, and Congress has made this clear by creating the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to plan for, and coordinate with, Federal and non-Federal stakeholders, to transform the current ATC system to the NextGen system. "Because the JPDO is a multi-agency effort, coordination between the JPDO and the Departments of Transportation, Defense, Commerce, and Homeland Security, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the White House Office of Science and Technology, is essential," he said.

But Oberstar cautioned that it is clear that such projects are difficult to manage. "History has taught us that “big bang” approaches to ATC modernization do not work," he said. "As both the Department of Transportation Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have noted, the FAA’s major acquisitions in the past have run into billions of dollars of cost growth and years of schedule delays, all of which are directly traceable to overly ambitious plans, complex software development, changing requirements, and poor contract management. I appreciate that representatives of both the Inspector General and the GAO are here today, and I look forward to hearing their testimony."

In his prepared remarks for the committee, DOT IG Calvin L. Scovel III said the FAA continues to face significant challenges in achieving its NextGen long-term goals. "Central to this effort is the successful implementation of ongoing modernization projects that will provide platforms for new NextGen capabilities for enhancing capacity," he said. "However, key multibillion-dollar programs have experienced problems, and FAA has yet to fully determine their NextGen-specific requirements. These platforms include the $2.1 billion En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) program. Delays with this and other projects will have a cascading effect on NextGen plans now and well into the future. One critical step to avoid risks with NextGen’s cost, schedule, and capabilities is addressing gaps in partner agencies’ research and development efforts and long-term budgets and plans. We identified actions that can be taken now to strengthen the multi-agency approach, better leverage Federal research projects, and prevent duplicative efforts."

"Delays or performance shortfalls in any of these systems will impact NextGen’s development and implementation," Scovel continued. "For example, FAA has not yet established firm requirements that can be used to develop cost and schedule estimates for modifications to existing terminal automation systems, which will allow controllers to display and use satellite surveillance to better manage traffic. According to FAA, it may take an additional 1 to 2 years to develop requirements for these systems and other mid-term NextGen efforts."

"While FAA is making progress in addressing NextGen’s challenges, a number of critical actions are still needed, many of which focus on aligning agencies’ research and resources to reduce development costs and mitigate risks with a multibillion-dollar effort that will span decades," said Scovel. Unless these issues are effectively addressed in the near term, FAA runs the risk that NextGen may not deliver the long-term benefits needed to meet the expected future demand for air travel."

Dr. Karlin Toner, Director of the JPDO, said the offices' mission has evolved since it was created. "Initially, the office was created by Vision-100 as an interagency group to work across government and with the industry to define the NextGen integrated plan," he said. "During the earlier planning stages, I was fortunate to be part of that visionary group as a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) researcher serving on an integrated product team, helping to brainstorm ideas and concepts that might benefit the modernization of our air transportation system. As the planning matured, the JPDO focused more exclusively on the long-term research planning."

Toner said the NextGen vision, expressed in the JPDO’s Concept of Operations, contains a wide variety of possible ideas that might be helpful to meet our Nation’s air traffic needs. But, neither the vision nor avenues being considered are static. NextGen capabilities are beginning to be implemented today, and as we gain experience, our past work will help us refine how we more effectively implement future NextGen goals. "Today’s world is different than the one in which the NextGen Concept of Operations was originally envisioned," he said. The economy, the airlines, the environment, energy issues, and our security needs have changed dramatically. To account for these changes, we must take a more flexible approach to longer-term NextGen planning, blending evolution and transformation to meet the national needs for air transportation. We must test and prioritize our options against these realities."

Toner said that by 2025, the expectation is that the air traffic system will still rely on pilots and air traffic controllers, but their roles will be different than they are today, and may be different from what we currently predict them to be in 2025. "We want to make sure that they will have the tools and systems they need to perform their functions safely and effectively," he said.

FMI: http://transportation.house.gov