This 1970-era ad for Sperry's ARTS III features a number of interesting items. Click on the image for a closer look.

Note: The description below has been provided by the FAA.

ARTS IIA

History

• Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) II was developed for 70 small facilities in 1974. System architecture included a LSI 2/20 processor, a digital reel-to-reel magnetic tape system and assembly language software.
• System upgrade and expansion to 95 sites occurred in 1982 and included:
  • Processor upgrade to a LSI 2/40
  • Implementation of ARTS IIIA- based tracking,
  • Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW), and Conflict Alert (CA) functionality.
• The system replaced the TPX-42 in use at additional sites in 1987, increasing the total number of sites to 128. Upgrades included development of the Mode S ASR 9 Line Adapter (MALA) for ASR 9 radar interfacing.

ARTS IIIA

History

• Initial Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) I was established at Atlanta in 1964.
• In 1966, the system was expanded to provide radar and beacon tracking and was installed at a consolidated radar site for the New York City area called New York Common IFR
• The next generation of equipment was designated ARTS III. It provided beacon only tracking using Input Output Processors (IOP), and was installed at 62 high density terminal air traffic control facilities between 1970 and 1973.
• System upgrades included the addition of Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW), Continuous and Critical Data Recording, and Conflict Alert (CA) functionality in 1975, 1976, and 1977 respectively. From 1975 to 1979, the Tampa/Sarasota ARTS IIIA Full Digital Umbrella Project demonstrated that fully digital remoting of radar/beacon and display information was operationally possible.
• In 1981, a contract was awarded to upgrade all ARTS III sites to ARTS IIIA. Enhancements included:
  • Replacement of beacon only tracking by radar/beacon.
  • Display refresh to occur via buffer memory.
  • Multiprocessing.
  • Automatic reconfiguration.
  • In 1989, the ARTS IIIA Interim Support Program (ISP) was initiated to:
  • Replace core with solid state memory.
  • Refurbish all disk drive units.
  • Provide additional trackballs and keyboards.
  • Provide additional controller positions using Full
  • Digital ARTS Displays (FDAD).
  • Establish a standardized software baseline for the system.
• Mode C Intruder alert functionality, which required expanded system capacity and additional processors, was added to the ISP contract in 1991.
• A requirement was identified in late 1992 to allow independent parallel operations for the new Denver airport. As a result, Final Monitor Aid (FMA) was developed to work in conjunction with ARTS IIIA. The system became operational in February 1995.

ARTS IIIE

History:

• Rapid growth of New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility requirements necessitated development of a larger automation system with more functionality. To accommodate the need, the ARTS IIIE system was evolved from ARTS IIIA. It became operational in 1993 with the following features: Processing accomplished in a distributed open systems architecture with functionality divided among common processing, track processing, system monitor, and display processing subsystems.
  • Utilization of a Local Area Network (LAN) for system communications.
  • Use of non-developmental items (NDI) and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products in some subsystems.
  • System support of 5 sensors, 2800 simultaneous tracks and 58 displays.

ARTS IIIE Upgrade A6.04 Description

• In the early 1990's, projected growth at other high density facilities indicated a need for additional ARTS IIIE upgrades at other ARTS IIIA sites. This resulted in a 1992 contract for the development and fielding of ARTS IIIE A6.04 at selected sites.
• ARTS IIIE A6.04 enhancements included:
  • Development of a National Software Baseline functionally equivalent to ARTS IIIA A3.06 with additional enhancements.
  • Rehosting of common processing functions from 6 Input/Output Processors, modification B (IOPB) to 3 COTS micro-processors, and recoding of software from assembly language to ANSI C.
  • Use of optical disk drives
  • Performance monitoring data offloaded to a PC.
  • System functionality increase to allow 6 sensor inputs and 76 displays.
• ARTS IIIE A6.04 became operational at the Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, and New York TRACONs in 1996.

Common ARTS

Description

ARTS programs have a common air traffic control mission with similar functional requirements. It was determined that identical COTS microprocessors and software developed in high order language could be used to economically upgrade the dated ARTS IIA systems as well as enhance the ARTS IIIE systems with the added benefits of developing a common national software baseline and consolidating logistics and training efforts. Common ARTS will be implemented as 149 small-to-medium-sized TRACON ARTS IIE systems and 5 large TRACON ARTS IIIE systems. System features will include:

• Modern COTS hardware with the exception of displays that will be retained from the previous systems.
• More flexible system architecture with software developed in ANSI C facilitating system growth and change.
• Enhanced site adaptation capability.
• An ARTS IIIE version designed to support 15 sensors, 10,000 simultaneous tracks, and over 200 displays.
• ARTS IIE versions designed to support one or two sensors and up to 22 displays in two different configurations that can process 256 simultaneous tracks per sensor.
• Implementation of Mode C Intruder alerts in the ARTS II system as mandated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

• ARTS IIE A6.05 systems will be installed at the Dallas/Fort Worth, New York, Chicago, Southern California, and Denver TRACONs.
• ARTS IIE A2.09 systems will replace all ARTS IIA systems.