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TERMINAL AUTOMATION MODERNIZATION AND REPLACEMENT TAMR 20 NextGen Now | Winter 2014 Since the first edition of NextGen Now was released in July 2014, the TAMR/STARS project has accomplished several more replacements in facilities throughout the nation. Billings, Mont., became the most recent tower/ TRACON to transition to STARS on September 18, making it the last to receive STARS deployment in fiscal year 2014. Billings is the third key site in the TAMR Phase 3 Segment 2 that will transition over 90 facilities to STARS over the next four years. Assessments will take place at all recent deployment sites to ensure their processes and training programs are meeting expectations. "Billings is yet another stepping-stone towards our incredibly aggressive deployment schedule in 2015, 2016, and 2017," said TAMR Phase 3 Segment 2 NATCA Lead Scott Robillard (K90). "The cooperation and teamwork demonstrated by the entire deployment team of this program is amazing." Denver TRACON (D01) achieved continuous operations status on September 10, 2014, just 16 days after the first live operational test of STARS as a replacement for the aging CARTS 3E system at the facility. "This was a tremendous accomplishment and yet another demonstration of effective NATCA/ Agency collaboration," said NATCA National TAMR Representative Mitch Herrick. "The TAMR program continues to pile up success stories of facilities transitioning to STARS ahead of schedule early in their very aggressive waterfall." Denver is the latest in a string of early Initial Operational Capability (IOC) dates, joining Dallas in 2013 and Allentown and Austin in early 2014 as well as the Phase 1 tech refresh initiatives at both Philadelphia and Miami in 2013. "Observing the interaction, cooperation, and flexibility of the entire workforce in Denver has been very impressive," said NATCA TAMR Segment 1 Lead Doug Peterson (Dallas TRACON). "We can all be proud to be part of another successful deployment and should look forward to being acknowledged as positive examples of what can be accomplished," Peterson said. The TAMR program hit another milestone on August 15 this year. At 11:36 p.m. CDT, Austin (AUS) was welcomed into the STARS family. "This was really a model of teamwork and efficiency," said AUS NATCA TAMR Representative Matt Sheffield. Sheffield has been involved with the STARS installation at AUS for nearly three years and was instrumental in training controllers as well as developing the transition plan. "This is a bit surreal because we've been working towards this for so long. Many didn't believe it would ever happen and that it went off so smoothly is a tribute to everyone in the Agency working on the TAMR program." "This was the smoothest transition to STARS I have ever witnessed," said Herrick, of the AUS transition. "Site adaptation is one of the most pivotal components of a successful transition, and Austin's was nearly perfect. I attribute that to our Operational Support Facility (OSF) brothers and sisters."

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