A graduate in German, Jake has a passion for history and regional aviation, and enjoys sampling new carriers and aircraft. He has visited OEM facilities as far and wide as Bristol, Toulouse, and Seattle, and recently enjoyed the milestone of flying his 150th sector as a passenger. Based in Norfolk, UK.
Around a month ago, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States began its rollout of a new AI system as part of its ongoing efforts to modernize air traffic control in the country. Known as SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace Routes and Trajectories), the system went live in an initially limited capacity at three Washington airports: Baltimore (BWI), Dulles (IAD), and Reagan (DCA).
A month later, however, the FAA has come under fire from US lawmakers, who have penned a letter to US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford expressing their concerns about AI use in air traffic control. The lawmakers in question are US Senators and Members of Congress, with 25 of them having signed the letter urging the FAA to pause the use of AI in air traffic control.
Safety Concerns Regarding A Lack Of Training
While SMART is designed to help manage air traffic through the use of artificial intelligence at the three main airports that serve the wider Washington DC area, the system itself is not run from these airports' towers. Instead, it is run from FAA facilities in Warrenton, Virginia, with coverage by Reuters noting that SMART uses data streams to create visualizations and schedule recommendations for ATC.
It does not, however, directly actively manage aircraft in the sky, with Sean Duffy saying that "air traffic controllers will always control the airspace: this is just giving additional tools for controllers to better manage weather and other issues." In any case, lawmakers are concerned that frontline workers only got a few days' notice of SMART's launch and that safety staff have not been trained, adding that:
"Given the egregious lack of transparency around the initial rollout, (...) we ask that you pause any use of the SMART tool until we can better understand your decision-making, rollout process, and evaluation plan."
AI Remains A Public Concern As Its Use Becomes More Widespread
The 25 lawmakers that penned the letter to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also noted that they were doing so "at a time [when] there is so much public concern around the use of AI in critical systems." Furthermore, these US Senators and Members of Congress allege that they have not seen any safety evaluation or testing reports regarding SMART's rollout.
According to Reuters, SMART came about in June following the awarding of a 12-year contract to Air Space Intelligence that was valued at some $875 million. During its initial rollout in the Washington DC area, the FAA is specifically looking to use SMART to optimize the rescheduling of flights that are canceled due to adverse weather, before broadening both the remit of its tasks and where it is used.
However, lawmakers are hoping that SMART's use can be put on hold until US Senators and Members of Congress can get a fuller picture regarding the system's rollout and procedures. They are hoping for an answer to their letter by October 19, with 18 questions spread across three categories: Pre-Deployment Testing & Evaluations, Stakeholder Consultation & Training, and Assessments & Oversight.
Air Traffic Control Is Already A Sensitive Issue In DC After Last Year's Crash
There has also been a degree of questioning as to why the Washington DC area was selected for the initial rollout of the FAA's new SMART artificial intelligence system. After all, in this city more than most, air traffic control is already something of a sensitive issue, following the mid-air collision near Reagan Airport between an American Eagle regional jet and a US Army helicopter in January 2025.
On this front, the writers of the letter highlighted the fact that "nor has information been shared with local officials as to why the NCR, the region in which the deadliest US air disaster in nearly 25 years occurred just last year, was chosen as the pilot test region." These reps are not against the modernization of ATC systems, but they hope for more transparency regarding the use of AI before a full-scale rollout.