REPORT ON THE FAA'S TERMINAL ADVANCED AUTOMATION SYSTEM (TAAS)

WMA conducted this analysis and prepared a report for a major U.S. corporation. TAAS was tied to the Advanced Automation Program (AAS). Under AAS, common controller consoles will be used for Enroute and Terminal functions. Prior to cancelling the Area Control Facility (ACF) concept, the common consoles were to be installed in all ACFs and Metroplex Control Facilities (MCF). The MCFs appear to be stabilized at nine civil and four military locations (Southern California, Chicago, Dallas-Ft Worth, Denver, Potomac, New York, Northern California, Atlanta, and Central Florida; and Eglin, Rucker, Edwards, and Nellis). However, there is need for 170 new automation systems for Local Control Facilities (LCF). FAA believes that these can be procured as COTS, and several vendors have been talking to them.

Up to 50 larger LCFs will be upgraded as a subset of TAAS with less capacity and physically smaller. Up to 120 smaller LCFs will be upgraded through all digital systems having an open system architecture fitting the FAA definition of COTS (in-use or soon to be fielded systems). The concept of procurement presented in Nashville at the ATCA Convention was through a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) which would yield three to five systems for demonstration and evaluation at the FAATC with live radars; thus, yielding a limited competition for production systems.

TAAS development is in three phases. Phase I covers radar functions, a reduced capacity, and paper strips. Phase II covers the baseline TAAS and electronic flight data. Phase III adds FAST (Final Approach Spacing Tool), data link, and TMA (Traffic Management Advisor).