In January 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the implementation of a new tech called Surface Movement Radars (SMR) that air traffic controllers will use to help prevent runway incidents. The George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston will be the first in the nation to receive new SMRs as part of a nationwide effort to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system. The rollout of new solutions is something that the FAA acknowledges as being long overdue, considering their recent work to replace up to 612 radar systems that date back to the 1980s.
SMR technology is an improved surface surveillance method that provides superior tracking of aircraft and vehicles on airport runways and taxiways. Aircraft controllers receive real-time alerts about potential conflicts before they happen, which should reduce collisions and close calls once airports begin using SMRs in earnest. While not as advanced as the military-grade 6G-powered radar that some fighter jets are using today, it’s certainly a step in the right direction for ensuring safety at commercial airports.
How Surface Movement Radar works
As defined by SKYbrary, an SMR is “specifically designed to detect all principal features on the surface of an airport, including aircraft and vehicular traffic.” What this means is that air traffic controllers will be able to visually observe any and all objects that an aircraft might collide with while moving along a runway. This takes the guesswork out of planning routes for pilots and vehicle drivers. Ideally, tower controllers will never need to order an emergency maneuver at the last second because SMRs will reduce the odds of close calls by boosting situational awareness.
This is all possible because SMRs operate on a much higher frequency compared to previous radar technology. This also allows them to have much shorter antennae, enabling faster rotation and thus more frequent information updates. Navtech Radar’s SMR can reportedly detect, track, and classify objects of all sizes at up to a 1-kilometer radius — that’s a lot of objects for tower controllers to account for at once, which explains why civilians are not allowed to fly drones near U.S. airports.
Surface Movement Radar is not an entirely new tech, per se; documentation pertaining to the FAA’s Runway Incursion Reduction Program indicates that SMR technology was installed at the San Antonio International Airport as far back as June 2024. Even so, the initiative to utilize SMRs at IAH is a groundbreaking endeavor that will precede promising advancements at airports across the country.
