WASHINGTON — Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford said Tuesday that the country's analog national airspace system must be replaced with digital technology, speaking at the Modern Skies Summit at the U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters in Washington. He said the existing infrastructure prevents the national aviation system from reaping the benefits of today's digital tools.

"We have an analog national airspace system today," Bedford said at the summit, describing the FAA's traffic management tools as "glorified calculators." "We can do better," he said. He also said the technology controlling U.S. airspace has not kept pace with advances in aviation, and that a successful overhaul would cut costs across the industry.

The administration's initiative to overhaul American aviation is called the Brand New Air Traffic Control System, or BNATCS. The goal is to move from systems that rely on outdated radar and radio networks and slips of paper to ones that use modern technologies. The FAA is overseeing the replacement of copper wires with fiber optic cables and upgrading hundreds of radio and radar systems. Congress approved $12.5 billion last summer to begin the work, most of it earmarked for new equipment and additional air traffic controllers.

"We will see block times go down and we will finally be able to unlock flying from New York to L.A. in less time than it takes to do it today, and that is the win: less fuel burn, less cost to actually have airplanes sit on the ground," Bedford said. The FAA remains short-handed and plans to hire thousands more controllers, he said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the project spans 10 million labor hours in 4,600 locations and involves collaboration with 50 vendors, and said the work is on schedule to be completed by the end of President Trump's term in 2028. "We are going to deliver this on time, on budget," Duffy said. He confirmed that in some cases the modernization might employ artificial intelligence, and said the Department of Transportation is in contact with three companies in the AI space.

Duffy acknowledged that in recent decades the U.S. government has paid billions of dollars to try to modernize the aviation system. "We've looked within our couch cushions at the FAA to start the work, to find the money to begin this process. But we do need the money," he said. "The Congress should have faith in this DOT and this FAA, because we are building and we're building now. We're delivering on the promises that we've made."

National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels said new technology would not bring new competition for the controller workforce, calling it a "force multiplier." "When technology handles more of the routine, controllers get to handle more of the critical," Daniels said.

The Government Accountability Office noted in January that the FAA's hiring and certifying of controllers has not kept pace with the growth of air travel.