The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has planned to transform its Air Traffic Control system from a ground-based network to a satellite-based network as part of its Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) project. The FAA has seen in ADS-B the cornerstone of NextGen for the benefits it will bring to the National Airspace System (NAS); these benefits are increased safety and capacity.

Other ADS-B benefits as seen by FAA are:

• Providing air-to-air surveillance capability.
• Providing surveillance to remote areas not having any radar coverage.
• Providing real-time in-cockpit traffic and aeronautical information.
• Allowing for reduced separation and greater predictability in departure and arrival times.
• Supporting common separation standards, both horizontal and vertical, for all classes of airspace.
• Improving ability of airlines to manage traffic and aircraft fleets.
• Improving ability of air traffic controllers to plan arrivals and departures far in advance.
• Reducing the cost of the infrastructure needed to operate the National Airspace System.

In August 2007, the ADS-B implementation contract was awarded to ITT Corporation, a major US Engineering company and its project partners, AT&T, Thales, and several others. The full ADS-B infrastructure deployment throughout the US NAS is schedule for completion in 2013. The full Avionics compatibility with ADS-B is scheduled for 2020. And the full decommissioning and removal of the legacy surveillance system and the SSR-based Traffic Information Service-Broadcast (TIS-B) is scheduled to be complete in 2025.