Glare falls on US's antiquated aviation infra

The major disruption in US air traffic, which affected thousands of passengers and flights, started with a seemingly small incident. A glitch during an upgrade of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) telecommunications infrastructure cascaded into widespread flight cancellations and delays, stopping America in its tracks for hours and hours.Amid a frantic race to contain the fallout from this dramatic embarrassment, something far less dramatic has drawn public attention: ageing wires, outdated routers and technology that belongs to another era running a modern system.Also read | What passengers need to know as flight disruptions continueAs America counts the costs of the disruption, the world's gaze has fallen on how the most advanced of economies was brought to its knees not by natural calamity, a terror attack or an aircraft shortage, but by a weak link in its infra.Old, antiquated systemsThe November 13 happenings exposed one thing more than anything else -- the fragility of America's ageing air traffic control (ATC) communications network.The question being asked now is, how can the country that leads the world in technological innovation still depend on decades-old systems to keep its skies safe?A country that can put astronauts in space should not have to worry about whether its air traffic controllers can communicate with an aircraft because a decades-old router has stopped behaving. Yet that is the uncomfortable reality staring in America's face, as the system running the world's largest aviation infra is showing its age more and more.According to FAA's accounts, the disruptions were triggered by a communications failure involving a router during an upgrade. But the incident is about much more than one faulty tool.Also read | 20,000 flights hit as FAA's ageing technology faces a fresh test after suspected router failureMore than anything, it has shown what the rising fragility of an ageing system can lead to.It has put the spotlight on the risks of replacing critical infra while it is still in operation, and the possibility that another seemingly minor technical glitch could bring American aviation to a standstill, with enormous economic and potentially disastrous safety fallouts.The big challengeThe episode has brought to the fore a very difficult test of modernisation.The FAA is trying to replace a network that has evolved over decades without interrupting communications. This is a critival matter, because all aircraft operations depend on these communications.In the November 13 incident, systems contractor L3Harris was changing old copper telephone connections to fibre-optic lines when the trouble began.Newly installed routers reportedly generated more than 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds, destabilising communications across 17 of the FAA's 22 en-route air traffic control centres, Reuters reported.The routers being replaced are around 25 years old and were originally due for replacement in 2006.The bill for maintaining the old network comes to around $1 billion a year. More than 70% of the planned conversion has been done. The rest of the work will have to be completed while the system remains in service, which, by FAA's own account, can be quite a challenge.135849512A much deeper problemThis router failure was only the most visible symptom of a much bigger, deeper problem.On November 5, the FAA announced that it had begun replacing floppy disks used to store weather and other essential information at more than 400 air traffic control facilities.Floppy disks are a relic from an era long gone by.The new Enterprise Information Display System is intended to replace four separate systems dating back to the 1980s, with the transition expected to be fully done by the end of 2028.What is more, the agency also continues to rely on decades-old Compaq computers and sources replacement components through eBay.These computers were from another era, and are not made anymore. The company that made them was acquired by HP in 2002.Even a planned end to using paper flight strips, which controllers still use to track aircraft, remains unfinished. In aviation circles, this is often a butt of jokes. A programme was started in 2022 to bring in digital alternatives at 49 major airports, but it remains unfinished, and will likely take until at least 2028.According to many reports, this represents a striking picture of technological neglect in a country that is otherwise at the forefront of digital innovation.Cautionary talesIndications are that the November 13 disruption will hardly be the last such case. The FAA's own accounts tell several cautionary tales.In January 2023, a contractor accidentally deleted files in the agency's Notice to Air Missions system, forcing a nationwide ground stop lasting 90 minutes and disrupting around 11,000 flights.*In September 2026, a circuit failure at a Philadelphia air traffic facility and the accidental cutting of a fibre-optic cable by a construction…