Airmen at Nellis AFB, Nev., stood up a new system for the base’s air traffic controllers that replaces older, less-capable technology, according to a base release. The Standard Terminal Automation Modernization Replacement System, or STARS, is command-automated control hardware that integrates aircraft surveillance and flight plan data and presents the information to controllers on high-resolution color displays. The Air Force plans to integrate STARS at all of its ATC facilities, states the Oct. 24 release. “STARS gives the controllers the ability to have and receive more information as well as find things quicker,” said SSgt. Christopher Alvarez, an air traffic controller with Nellis’ 57th Operational Support Squadron. “The biggest advantage is it’s an Air Force wide-system and it allows Nellis controllers to meet their wartime commitment downrange once they arrive versus having to get recertified on a different system,” added CMSgt. Rodney Wilson, chief of Nellis’ ATC facility. Nearby Creech Air Force Base also received STARS, states the release.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week released strategies meant to focus the Pentagon’s “alphabet soup” of innovation organizations and proliferate artificial intelligence—moves that experts say could provide the structure needed to make the military’s efforts to integrate and field new technology more effective.
