FAA implements AI system SMART for air traffic management

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced a large-scale project to modernize air traffic control using SMART software. The agency will allocate $875 million to implement the system, which is designed to automate air space management.

The main task of SMART is to support air traffic controllers in making decisions in real-time. The system's algorithms will analyze aircraft trajectories to detect potential conflicts early and prevent hazardous approaches. The introduction of the technology is aimed at reducing the workload on personnel and increasing the capacity of airports.

Funding for the project is distributed across several stages of development and integration into the existing air traffic management infrastructure. The system should provide more accurate forecasting of weather conditions and traffic density, which is critical for flight safety. The technical details of the architecture and specific deployment timelines by region are still being clarified as part of public discussion of the initiative.

The use of AI in critical government systems of this level requires strict reliability certification. The SMART project will be one of the largest examples of integrating machine learning into the aviation industry, where the cost of algorithmic errors is extremely high. It is expected that automation will reduce the number of flight delays caused by human factors in manual management of complex aircraft flows.