FAA officials say the remaining issues with ERAM are not as serious as indicated by the numbers cited by the OIG. Only a small percentage of these issues represent new software problems, and many are site-specific, they say. Problems are prioritized and worked on by a team representing the FAA, Lockheed Martin and the controllers’ union.

The importance of 2013 for the ERAM program cannot be overstated. By the end of the year, the program will have either vanquished its past problems and nearly completed deployment, or will be facing a further timetable revision and more questions from Congress. And while ADS-B faces less uncertainty in its last year of deployment, the agency still has to tackle tough questions about the next stage of this program.