In 1981, the FAA began a program to modernize the air traffic control (ATC) system by replacing aging equipment & accommodating predicted growth in air traffic. It has had difficulty for more than two decades in meeting cost, schedule, & performance targets. The performance-based Air Traffic Org. (ATO) was created in 2004 to improve the management of the modernization effort. In Oct. 2004, a panel discussed the factors that have affected FAA's ability to acquire new ATC systems. They identified steps that FAA's ATO could take in the short term to address these factors, as well as longer term steps that could be taken to improve the modernization program's chances of success & help the ATO achieve its mission.