en.Wedoany.com Reported - The first operational next-generation secondary radar for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been installed and commissioned in Putnam, Oklahoma, by Indra Group USA. This is part of the FAA's "Radar System Replacement Program," which will deploy 185 primary and secondary radars to replace aging surveillance infrastructure from the 1980s in the United States.
The deployed radar utilizes fully digital technology, designed to significantly reduce system downtime and latency. The successful operation of this radar in Putnam validates the real-world performance of Indra's advanced electronics and confirms its integration capability with existing FAA infrastructure. Víctor Martínez, Executive Vice President of Air Traffic Management at Indra, stated that this commissioning proves the company's role as a technology partner for the FAA, reinforces the value of the radar contract, and demonstrates technical excellence. He emphasized that this milestone, combined with new domestic manufacturing capabilities, strengthens Indra's position in the U.S. air traffic management market.
The selection of Putnam was based on three key factors: the site has an established long-range beacon interrogator station that can directly feed real-time flight data to the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) and Air Route Traffic Control Center managing Oklahoma airspace; its location northwest of Oklahoma City, adjacent to the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center—the FAA's core hub for training, logistics, and engineering—provides operational redundancy for local air traffic controllers; and the region's vast, flat plains offer an unobstructed testing environment, ideal for verifying the signal quality of the secondary surveillance radar.
To meet the FAA's requirements for delivery time and production capacity, Indra Group USA has opened a new 125,000-square-foot Manufacturing Center of Excellence in Olathe, Kansas, with a total investment of $50 million. This center will house dedicated radar assembly lines needed to fulfill the FAA contract and is expected to create over 200 local jobs. In addition to radar manufacturing, the facility will handle high-volume production of critical communications and defense technologies, including up to 46,000 advanced NEXCOM digital radios and DME systems for the FAA, as well as portable tactical air navigation (MP-TACAN) systems for the U.S. Air Force.
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