Interagency collaboration between the Federal Aviation Administration and the rest of the federal government when it comes to coordinating research efforts for projects relevant to air traffic control modernization leaves much to be desired, says the Government Accountability Office.

In a report dated June 30, the GAO in particular finds difficulties in coordination between the FAA and the departments of Homeland Security and Defense. The FAA is the lead federal agency in charge of the massive air traffic modernization effort known as NextGen, which at its most fundamental level seeks to replace radar-based air traffic control with Global Positioning System-derived data.

Although the FAA is the agency most closely associated with the effort, NextGen from the start was designated as an interagency effort to which multiple agencies would contribute in order to prevent duplication of research and technology development efforts, the GAO report notes.

However, the DoD has not completed an inventory of its R&D portfolio related to NextGen, GAO auditors find, adding that neither has FAA provided in some cases enough specificity of its NextGen technology gaps so that DoD can identify where its own R&D efforts could provide a benefit.

Defense officials also told GAO auditors that they have had a hard time understanding FAA officials (despite the presumed commonality of English among officials at both agencies) due to "differences in terminology and culture across agencies."

As for collaboration with DHS, the GAO says that DHS has also not identified and aligned its NextGen-related R&D activities with NextGen, despite a formal pledge to do so. DHS's work with unmanned aircraft systems and cybersecurity are relevant to NextGen, the report says. DHS officials said they were not involved in early planning related to NextGen cybersecurity.

"DHS officials commented that sometimes DHS does not participate in events either because it is not invited or because it does not choose to participate," the report adds.

For more:
- download the report, Gao-11-604 (.pdf)

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