(Washington, D.C.) The Navy’s first-of-its-kind Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, installed on the USS Ford carriers over a period of many years, has now launched fighter jets from the ship’s deck more than 8,000 times, a milestone marking the progressive emergence of a new kind of aircraft propulsion system for carrier-jet take off to replace existing steam catapults.
The 8,000 take-off and landing has involved F/A-18 Super Hornet jets, E-2D Hawkeye aircraft, C-2 Greyhound carrier transports and EA-18G Growlers, among others. Emerging from years of scientific research and innovation, EMALs is changing the paradigm for fighter-jet take-off with a smoother kind of ship-deck propulsion system designed to enable an improved continuous launch of growing electromagnetic force and reduce wear and tear on aircraft. Perhaps most of all, the value-added with an EMALS system is that it is designed to support a much greater sortie rate. A much higher number of attack missions and an increased ability to project power can therefore be supported by EMALS.
EMALS Development – General Atomics
The development of the EMALS systems goes back several decades, as General Atomics was awarded a preliminary design deal to develop the system as far back as 2000. As a breakthrough technology, the system evolved through a series of adaptations and improvements as Navy and industry developers worked to integrate a previously unprecedented technology. Component deliveries of the EMALS system were underway as long as 10 years ago.
Integration of several key components of EMALS needed to be installed early in the building process of the Navy’s USS Ford because several essential components, such as motor-generators needed to be installed in the lower portions of the ship, a Navy program manager told me several years ago during an earlier phase of EMALS development.
The integration of EMALS into the Ford was a complex, detailed and lengthy process. Metal decking had to be placed over the trough of the flight deck and cabling and linear induction motors were also installed on board the ship.
The purpose of these linear induction motors, this Navy weapons developers said, is to generate a “sequentially activated rolling magnetic field or wave” able to thrust and propel the aircraft forward. The Navy program manager said the electromagnetic field acts on a 22-foot long aluminum plate, running in between stationary sections of 12-foot linear motors.
“Electricity runs through the two sides of the motors, creating an electromagnetic wave. The aircraft motors are kicked in at the beginning. There’s a hydraulic piston that pushes a shuttle forward. The shuttle is what connects to the aircraft launch bar,” the Navy Program Manager told The National Interest as far back as several years ago during an earlier portion of the construction of the USS Ford.
