{"id":36409,"date":"2026-08-31T16:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=36409"},"modified":"2026-08-31T16:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:19:18","slug":"transportation-secretary-duffy-faa-administrator-bedford-celebrate-opening-of-key-manufacturing-plant-for-air-traffic-control-modernization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/maryland\/transportation-secretary-duffy-faa-administrator-bedford-celebrate-opening-of-key-manufacturing-plant-for-air-traffic-control-modernization\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Transportation Secretary Duffy &amp; FAA Administrator Bedford Celebrate Opening of Key Manufacturing Plant for Air Traffic Control Modernization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford celebrated the grand opening last week of a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Frederick, Maryland, that produces equipment critical to America\u2019s brand-new air traffic control system.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"356\" src=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/usdot-atc-modernization-plant-edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-36410\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2.2472567666422822;width:416px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/usdot-atc-modernization-plant-edit.jpg 800w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/usdot-atc-modernization-plant-edit-300x134.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>FAA Administrator Bedford joined the ribbon cutting at the $40-million Rohde &amp; Schwarz USA factory.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 87,000 square-foot facility will build digital Voice over IP voice switches that help air traffic controllers communicate with pilots and other air traffic control facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re making sure our air traffic control system is American made,\u201d said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. \u201cUnder President Trump, we aren&#8217;t just modernizing our skies at record speed\u2014we\u2019re putting American workers, American manufacturing, and American innovation first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis equipment is a critical part of our landmark air traffic control modernization effort,\u201d said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. \u201cThe new facility supports our aggressive schedule to complete the new system by the end of 2028 while strengthening U.S. production capabilities and creating high-quality American jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additional Information:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With a $12.5 billion down payment from the Working Families Tax Cut and Secretary Duffy\u2019s leadership, the FAA is moving at the Speed of Trump to make upgrades to our air traffic control system nationwide. In just one year we have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Replaced 63% of copper wires with either high-speed fiber, 5G wireless or LEO capabilities in air traffic control facilities nationwide<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Converted 388 radio sites<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Installed Surface Awareness Initiative technology at 96 towers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Transitioned 21 towers to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/newsroom\/driving-news-trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-debuts-dcas-upgrade-paper\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/newsroom\/driving-news-trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-debuts-dcas-upgrade-paper\">electronic flight strips<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Installed 176 IP voice switches<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Installed 9 new Tower Simulation systems to train controllers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Installed SMR4 Surface Movement Radars at 5 airports<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The recent installation of the 140th CERTIUM Voice Communication System (VCS) at the Rapid City Regional Airport control tower in South Dakota completed Wave 1 of the nationwide deployment ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read more and track our progress on our <a href=\"https:\/\/modernskies.faa.gov\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/modernskies.faa.gov\/\">Modern Skies website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford celebrated the grand opening last week of a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Frederick, Maryland, that produces equipment critical to America\u2019s brand-new air traffic control system. The 87,000 square-foot facility will build digital Voice over IP voice switches that help air traffic controllers communicate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maryland","category-national-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36411,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36409\/revisions\/36411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}