Newark Liberty International Airport is getting a new surface radar system, one of the first tangible rollouts of a $12.5 billion nationwide push by the Federal Aviation Administration to modernize air traffic control equipment that has failed at the airport repeatedly over the past year, local reporting confirmed this week.

The funding comes from the $12.5 billion Congress allocated in July under the Brand New Air Traffic Control System initiative. New surface radars are being installed at 44 airports nationwide, with another 200 airports slated to receive newer surveillance technology under the Surface Awareness Initiative, according to the FAA's modernization program. Officials have condensed what was originally envisioned as a longer overhaul into a three-year sprint, targeting completion by the end of 2028, and have asked Congress for another $19 to $20 billion to finish the broader system.

WHY NEWARK IS FIRST IN LINE

Newark's radar and radio systems have failed at least eight or nine times over the past year, according to one controller who spoke to reporters, including a widely documented 90-second blackout on April 28, 2025, when controllers managing Newark-bound traffic from a facility in Philadelphia were unable to see, hear or talk to aircraft in the air. A second outage followed just weeks later, on May 9. The chaos traces back to an earlier FAA decision to relocate part of Newark's air traffic control operations to Philadelphia to ease staffing shortages — a move that multiple outages since have shown created new problems rather than solving old ones.

The repeated blackouts triggered flight delays and cancellations, prompted some controllers to walk off the job citing on-the-job trauma, and turned Newark into the poster child for the aging, patchwork infrastructure the FAA has relied on for decades. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has pledged a full modernization of the national airspace system by 2028.

Two contractors have now been tasked with building out the new 1980s-era radar replacements, part of a broader telecommunications, radar and data-management overhaul the agency says is its most ambitious in a generation. For now, Newark remains under close watch: the FAA has not said whether the new radar will be fully operational before the airport's next peak travel season, and lawmakers from New Jersey have continued pressing the agency for a firm timeline.