FAA Voice Communicaiton System (VCS) Singe Source Award

Award Notice - VCS Single Source Contract 693KA8-25-C-00011 President Donald J. Trump and his Administration have made the modernization and safety of United States ATC system a priority. This is particularly true in wake of the midair collision on January 29, 2025, of American Airlines Flight 5342 with a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport, resulting in 67 fatalities.

On January 30, 2025, the day after the midair collision, President Trump issued a Memorandum for the Secretary of Transportation and the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, mandating, in part that “the Secretary of Transportation (Secretary) and the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (Administrator) … take such corrective action as necessary to achieve uncompromised aviation safety.” (See Presidential Action, Immediate Assessment of Aviation Safety, dated January 30, 2025).

To meet the need for uncompromised aviation safety the FAA is accelerating its TDM-to-IP transition, to include acceleration of the VoICE Program’s timeline to replace aging TDM voice switches with VoIP-enabled switches. The FAA’s Air Traffic Control (ATC) current voice infrastructure is one of many critical NAS infrastructures that is dependent on TDM technology. NAS communications depend on legacy Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) technology from the 1960s, which is being phased out of the commercial market.

Maintaining these outdated technologies has recently become increasingly difficult and expensive as many commercial vendors are discontinuing TDM services. Inability to appropriately maintain or repair the aging legacy NAS infrastructure and systems along with the discontinuance of some TDM technology presents a serious risk to NAS safety.

Voice switches are integral to the provision of ATC services in that they enable controllers to communicate with pilots, other controllers, other air traffic facilities, and commercial telephone contacts. The FAA’s Voice over IP Communication Enterprise (VoICE) Program is tasked with replacing aging TDM voice switches with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)-enabled voice switching systems to allow the ATC system to function on the new technology which is actively replacing TDM switches at sites nationwide.

Legacy TDM based voice switches face both obsolescence risks and operational limitations. The award of the VCS contracts was needed immediately to protect the American flying public. These two (2) single source procurements for VoIP-enabled voice communication systems are in furtherance of the FAA’s need to accelerate the TDM-to-IP transition to achieve uncompromised aviation safety and protect the American flying public.

Pursuant to AMS Policy Section 3.2.2.4, “the FAA may contract with a single source when in FAA's best interest and the rational basis for the decision is documented.” Based on market research, the need to accelerate the TDM-to-IP transition, and FAA confidence that the following vendors can produce and deploy the voice switches in adherence to the accelerated timeline, the following awards have been made for the development, testing, qualification, production and deployment of VoIP-enabled voice switches: Rohde & Schwarz USA (UEI F4FLM3NP2N46) contract 693KA8-25-C-00010 with an initial award of $5M and an estimated total contract award value of $325M, once definitized. Frequentis USA (UEI P35CUAWMBQ19) contract 693KA8-25-C-00011 with an initial award of $4M and an estimated contract award value of $115M, once definitized.