A new era of aircraft carrier fighter jet attack at sea is emerging, because electromagnetic launch technology has replaced steam catapults to massively increase sortie rates and offensive military options for U.S. Navy maritime power projection.
The successful completion of the U.S. Navy’s at-sea operational testing of its next-generation Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System on board the USS Ford means carrier commanders will now have a new set of attack possibilities due to the capabilities of this first of its kind technology.
EMALS
EMALS, now installed on the USS Ford and amid integration into the future USS Kennedy and USS Enterprise carriers, is supported by new carrier landing technology called Advanced Arresting Gear. The operational assessments were part of the U.S. Navy’s 18-month-long Post Delivery Test and Trial period for the Ford, a key step in anticipation of its ultimate combat deployment.
The EMALS system, in development since as far back as 2000 with General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, consists of a series of transformers and rectifiers designed to convert and store electrical power through motor generators before bringing power to the launch motors on the ship’s catapults.
By having an electrical pulse come down, the aircraft is pulled down the catapult to launch; the precise weight of the aircraft can be dialed in. As the aircraft accelerates down the catapult, it can reach the precise speed it needs to launch, senior Navy officials have said.
Unlike steam catapults, which use pressurized steam in more of what developers call a “shotgun” effect, a launch valve and a piston to catapult aircraft, EMALS uses a precisely determined amount of electrical energy. Therefore EMALS is designed to more smoothly launch aircraft while reducing stress and wear and tear on the airframes themselves. This is particularly useful because the amount of thrust needed to launch an aircraft depends upon a range of interwoven factors to include size, shape and weight of the aircraft, wind speed on the carrier deck and the speed of the aircraft carrier in the water.
On the ship, EMALS is engineered such that any of the ship’s four catapults will be able to draw power from any one of three energy storage groups on the ship. Metal decking is placed over the trough on the flight deck. Cabling and linear induction motor sections have been installed on board the USS Ford and linear motors are engineered to help create a sequentially activated rolling magnetic field or wave able to thrust or propel aircraft forward, Navy developers told me.
