Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System


The Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System is an air traffic control automation system manufactured by Raytheon and is currently being used in many TRACONs around the United States by the FAA. STARS is intended to replace the Automated Radar Terminal System. ARTS is still in use at many air traffic control facilities.
The STARS program receives and processes target reports, weather, and other non-target messages from both terminal and en route digital sensors. Additionally, it automatically tracks primary and secondary surveillance targets and provides aircraft position information to the enhanced traffic management system. Finally, it also detects unsafe proximities between tracked aircraft pairs and provides a warning if tracked aircraft are detected at a dangerously low altitude. Additional features include converging runway display aid and controller automation spacing aid. These features display "ghost" targets as an aid to controllers attempting to tightly space aircraft in the terminal environment.

Features

The system is currently being used at a number of TRACON sites throughout the US and a number of military RAPCON sites that control military air traffic.
The STARS is part of the FAA's TAMR project to replace aging hardware and software at TRACONS. It is also called TAMR Phase I. The larger TRACONs still use Common ARTs capable equipment but the FAA announced in Spring 2011 that TAMR Segment 3 Phase 1 will consist of replacing these 11 larger TRACONS with STARS by 2016. Simultaneously, all Terminal areas in the United States will phase out all CARTS and ARTS systems and switch to STARS. The smaller sites will transitions to the STARS ELITE version of software and hardware, which is similar to TAMR, but with minimum redundancy. The FAA plans to complete this process by 2020.