FAA breaks ground on Maryland plant to build new air traffic control voice switches

The Federal Aviation Administration broke ground on an 87,000-square-foot facility in Frederick, Maryland, that will build new digital voice switch systems for air traffic control. The agency said the $40 million plant is part of a wider effort to replace aging analog equipment controllers use to communicate with pilots and other facilities.

The FAA said about 450 voice switches are currently in operation nationwide, some dating back to the 1990s. The agency described the systems as safety-critical infrastructure supporting the flow of air traffic across the country.

The new switches rely on voice over internet protocol technology, which digitizes verbal communications instead of routing them through legacy analog hardware. Per the FAA, this would let controllers be reassigned to different sectors based on traffic volume, weather, or equipment failures without having to physically relocate.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford called the facility a critical part of the agency's air traffic control modernization program. He said it supports what he described as an aggressive schedule to complete the new system by the end of 2028.

The project, referred to internally as the VoIP Communications Enterprise, is meant to phase out legacy voice switches across towers, en route centers, terminal radar approach control facilities, and combined center radar approach control facilities. The FAA has long struggled to maintain adequate controller staffing levels. The agency suggested the new technology could help it make more flexible use of the controllers it already has, rather than resolving the shortage outright.

The announcement did not include a timeline for individual facility upgrades beyond the 2028 target.