Third-party tools enable NAS modernization planning

The Federal Aviation Administration´s (FAA) Air Traffic Organization (ATO) plans and develops the evolution of the National Airspace System (NAS). There is a strategic plan underway for NAS modernization that focuses on improving the aging NAS infrastructure to meet existing as well as future user needs. The principle modernization objectives of the plan are to upgrade the infrastructure, provide new safety features, and introduce new efficiency-oriented capabilities. In meeting these objectives, the FAA has developed a custom strategic planning process employing various systems engineering techniques and best practices to develop and maintain the NAS modernization plan. The process effectively addresses the unique challenges inherent in the NAS modernization effort. It relies on the capabilities and efficiencies of third-party tools to deal with the complexity of the NAS and meet innumerable user requirements. By properly applying these tools in the strategic planning process, the FAA can use a relatively small team of experts to more rapidly and efficiently integrate, analyze, and distribute engineering data related to NAS modernization and efficiently and effectively perform strategic NAS modernization planning. This is especially important in the budget constrained FAA environment.