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> $12.5 billion to fix the aging US air traffic control system and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wants another $30 billion for additional upgrades as the FAA deals with numerous technology issues.

Why does it cost this much? wouldn't any modern consumer grade computer be able to handle these tasks?

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Using numbers I think sound big and ridiculous, I don’t see how you spend more than $1m/per airport x ~500 commercial airports for compute and work stations, maybe another, $2m per airport for cable runs, radars and radios, and the like, and maybe ~$1b on software development (it’s the government) that’s $2.5b rounded up $3b I can’t fathom $42.5b

And when the modern consumer grade computer fails in the middle of a busy shift?

buy two? three? redundancy makes for good reliability

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