The Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) is an air traffic control automation system manufactured by
Raytheon
Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...
and is currently being used in many
TRACON
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...
s around the United States by the
FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
. STARS replaced the
Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) at
FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
air traffic control facilities across the US, as well as the previous automation systems employed by the
DoD.
The STARS system receives and processes target reports, weather, and other non-target messages from both terminal and en route digital sensors. Additionally, it automatically tracks primary and secondary surveillance targets and provides aircraft position information to the enhanced traffic management system (ETMS). Finally, it also detects unsafe proximities between tracked aircraft pairs and provides a warning if tracked aircraft are detected at a dangerously low altitude. Additional features include converging runway display aid (CRDA) which displays "ghost" targets as an aid to controllers attempting to tightly space aircraft to converging/crossing runways in the terminal environment.
Features
The system is currently being used at all
TRACON
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...
sites throughout the US and USAF RAPCON, USN RATCF and USA ARAC terminal facilities.
STARS was installed as part of the FAA's TAMR project to replace the aging/obsolete ARTS hardware and software at TRACONS.
TAMR Phase I
/ref> TAMR Segment 3 Phase 1 replaced the 11 largest TRACONS CARTS with STARS. The smaller ARTS IIA sites transitioned to the STARS ELITE (Enhanced Local Integrated Tower Equipment) version of software and hardware, which is similar to TAMR, but with minimum redundancy. The FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
plans to completed this process in 2019.
References
External links
FAA STARS
Raytheon STARS - DoD
Raytheon STARS - FAA
Raytheon STARS LITE
Raytheon STARS LITE (Brochure)
Avionics
Air traffic control
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