Digital Transformation at the State Air Traffic Management Corporation: A Case Study in Large-Scale Import Substitution

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In recent years, the migration of critical IT infrastructure to domestically developed software has shifted from a strategic preference to an engineering and organizational imperative. A prominent example of this transition is the digital transformation project undertaken by the State Corporation for Air Traffic Management (SCATM) in Russia.

“Since 2023, the enterprise has been executing a large-scale digital transformation project in partnership with the Russian software developer RED SOFT. The initiative addresses core layers of the IT architecture and directly impacts the resilience of processes supporting air navigation services nationwide,” reported RED SOFT’s press office.

Prior to the project, SCATM’s IT landscape relied heavily on foreign software solutions, ranging from operating systems and virtualization platforms to centralized management services. The cessation of updates and technical support from international vendors posed growing operational risks and complicated compliance with critical infrastructure security requirements. In this context, import substitution was approached not as a simple replacement of individual systems, but as the development of a controllable, fault-tolerant, and technologically independent platform.

The architectural core of the project is based on the RED SOFT product ecosystem. The transition encompassed desktops, servers, virtualization layers, and domain infrastructure. Concurrently, application systems—including key registries and accounting systems—were adapted to operate within the new software environment. Maintaining uninterrupted air traffic management services was a non-negotiable requirement at every stage, necessitating phased migration and meticulous coordination.

The project’s scale added further complexity. SCATM’s infrastructure spans more than 10,000 workstations across regional offices nationwide. The heterogeneity of hardware, geographic dispersion of branches, and the simultaneous operation of legacy and new systems demanded innovative organizational and engineering solutions. Training IT personnel and transferring competencies to ensure in-house operation and further development of the infrastructure were also critical components.

Despite the phased implementation, the project has already delivered tangible results. Thousands of workstations and servers now operate on a domestic operating system, a centralized domain infrastructure based on RED ADM has been deployed, and a virtualization environment has been established to enhance flexibility in resource utilization and improve data center resilience. The unified management system has streamlined administration of the distributed infrastructure and increased visibility into its operational state.

SCATM emphasizes that the project’s primary focus was not mechanical import substitution, but the preservation of manageability and reliability in processes critical to air navigation services. The scale of implementation—tens of thousands of devices and infrastructure components—required a detailed control model and stepwise deployment without service interruptions.

Project participants note that Russian software solutions are capable of supporting federal-level IT infrastructures with high requirements for security and fault tolerance. By 2025, successive phases of the domestic software migration program were completed, laying the groundwork for further project expansion, deeper integration of application systems, and enhanced cyber resilience.

The IT infrastructure built on RED SOFT solutions provides technological independence and resilience for critical airspace management and air navigation systems. Leveraging domestic platforms reduces reliance on foreign vendors and establishes a foundation for the further development of sectoral services, with scalability and adaptability to evolving security and operational requirements.

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