WASHINGTON - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is seeking industry input on commercially available Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (VOR) systems as the agency develops an acquisition strategy to modernize aging VOR electronics used throughout the National Airspace System.
The FAA's VOR Minimum Viable Product (MVP) market survey seeks information from companies offering mature Conventional VOR (CVOR) and Doppler VOR (DVOR) products. The agency is seeking to address equipment obsolescence, diminishing parts availability, and long-term sustainment requirements while maximizing the use of existing commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology.
Radio navigation
VOR is a ground-based VHF radio-navigation system that provides aircraft with azimuth information relative to a navigation station. VOR operates in the 108.0-117.95 MHz band and is subject to line-of-sight limitations. DVOR uses a different signal-generation architecture that can mitigate some signal-in-space restrictions caused by reflections from obstacles.
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The FAA is transitioning much of the National Airspace System (NAS) toward Performance-Based Navigation (PBN), which relies primarily on satellite navigation. Rather than eliminate conventional navigation infrastructure entirely, the agency is retaining a VOR Minimum Operational Network as a backup capability for aircraft affected by GPS outages.
The new MVP requirements are intended to establish essential capabilities without prescribing a unique FAA design solution. The FAA is asking vendors to evaluate their existing products against the requirements and identify whether systems fully meet, partially meet, or do not meet individual requirements.
The agency is particularly interested in solutions that minimize new development, custom FAA configurations, and nonrecurring engineering. The FAA envisions an electronics-focused replacement approach in which new VOR equipment would integrate with existing antennas and counterpoises to the maximum extent practicable.
Modifications allowed
For requirements that existing products do not fully meet, vendors can recommend product modifications, requirement refinements, equivalent performance or operational mitigations, requirement substitutions or waivers, and other approaches intended to reduce implementation complexity, cost, schedule, and sustainment risk. The FAA also asks vendors to provide high-level estimates of the effort, cost, and schedule associated with proposed product enhancements.
The FAA strongly prefers enhancements that become part of a vendor's standard commercial product baseline rather than a unique FAA configuration requiring separate lifecycle support.
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The market survey also addresses long-term sustainment, including supply-chain resilience, component obsolescence, counterfeit or nonconforming material, cybersecurity, equipment reliability, and maintainability.
The FAA is considering several acquisition approaches, including Other Transaction Authority agreements, pre-procurement Operational Capability Demonstrations, post-procurement Operational Capability Testing, and establishing a Qualified Systems List or Qualified Vendor List. The agency says operational demonstrations and testing could help evaluate vendor systems in FAA operational environments and identify gaps between existing products and the MVP requirements.
The survey asks vendors to provide information on VOR electronics cabinets, installation, spare components, integration with co-located Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) and Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) systems, system specifications, technology generation, security measures, and safety processes.
The FAA emphasizes that the VOR MVP market survey is for acquisition planning and is not a solicitation for a traditional development effort. The agency has not finalized its acquisition strategy, procurement vehicles, evaluation methodology, or future contract structure.
Responses are due to the FAA by 15 Oct. 2026, at 5 p.m. Eastern. The Agency named Richard J. Simons as the primary point of contact for this survey. They can be reached via email at [email protected]. More information is available at https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/651b92eca2cd4dfab68be3d5bae1d813/view.
