EMALS & JPALS for the JSF

[spazsinbad]

Navy Awards General Atomics Sustainment Contract for Ford-Class Launch, Landing Systems
18 May 2020 Seapower Staff

"...At-sea test periods are ongoing for the first carrier of the class, the USS Gerald R. Ford. In February, EMALS and AAG were cleared for shipboard launch and recovery of all currently deployed naval aircraft types aboard the Ford.

More than 2,300 successful day and night aircraft launches and recoveries using EMALS and AAG onboard have been completed. In addition, the Ford has finished flight-deck certification, aircraft compatibility testing and fleet replacement squadron training exercises for pilots to earn their qualifications on specific aircraft. EMALS and AAG continue to perform and execute according to specifications with the objective of reaching the sortie generation rates required for combat readiness...."

Source: https://seapowermagazine.org/navy-award ... emals-aag/

[spazsinbad]

USS Ford Maintenance Moving Ahead of Schedule, Shrinking To-Do List for After Shock Trials
20 May 2020 Megan Eckstein

"...Lawmakers had been told that Ford is now set to deploy in 2024, though the Navy pushed back on that timeline and said it could be sooner.

...Geurts said the current crew has also been working hard during at-sea time on the carrier, thoroughly testing all the new systems on board and working through how to operate them most efficiently. Geurts said the crew earlier this week set a record for how many planes it caught with the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) and launched with the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) – 167 combined catapults and trap landings in one day, compared to a previous record of 135 during another recent at-sea day.

The carrier is getting ready to bring the air wing on in about two weeks for full cyclic operations. In addition to continuing to refine operations with the new AAG and EMALS systems, the ship’s crew will also get to start working through the process of bringing ammunition up to the flight deck and loading it on aircraft.


Source: https://news.usni.org/2020/05/20/uss-fo ... ock-trials

[spazsinbad]

Launch, Recovery Systems Achieve Another Milestone Aboard Gerald R. Ford
04 Jun 2020 SeaPower Staff

"SAN DIEGO — More than 3,000 catapult launches and landings using the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) have been completed aboard USS Gerald R. Ford, said the systems’ manufacturer, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS).

The milestone is significant for the carrier and its crew, as the Navy moves toward a goal of 8,000 launches and landings at sea scheduled through the end of 2020.

“EMALS and AAG continue to perform as expected as the ship ramps up evolutions towards achieving combat operational readiness,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “Both systems’ capabilities are being rigorously exercised to meet the daily objectives for cats and traps in support of the various squadrons undergoing carrier qualification and training aboard CVN 78. In addition to marking the 3,000 milestone, on May 19, the ship performed 167 successful launches and recoveries in a single day, breaking the previous record of 135.”

“Since January, CVN 78 has multiplied the total expected number of launch and landing evolutions by a factor of four,” Rolf Ziesing, vice president of programs at GA-EMS, added. “We’ve seen EMALS and AAG put through the paces day and night on CVN 78, utilizing a range of aircraft, including F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes, C-2A Greyhounds, EA-18G Growlers and T-45C Goshawks.”..."

Source: https://seapowermagazine.org/launch-rec ... ld-r-ford/

[spazsinbad]

Ford Completes Its Largest Aircraft Embark
08 Jun 2020 Seapower Staff

"ATLANTIC OCEAN — With Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 embarked, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) logged significant milestones this week during post-delivery test and trials (PDT&T) operations at sea, the ship’s public affairs department said in a June 7 release....

...Underway, CVW-8 conducted day and night cyclic flight operations totaling 324 catapult launches and arrested landings, qualifying 50 pilots, including Ford’s commanding officer, Capt. J.J. Cummings. To date, Ford has conducted 3,480 catapult launches and arrested landings with the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) and advanced arresting gear. Additionally, during this execution of cyclic flight operations with CVW-8, Ford moved thousands of pounds of inert ordnance via advanced weapons elevators to F/A-18 Super Hornets, employed during close air support and air-to-ground training missions. Executing cyclic operations and arming aircraft with bombs from the ship’s magazines were firsts for the team.

The air wing’s embark provided the first opportunity for Ford’s weapons department to execute a full ordnance movement using a lower stage weapons elevator. Performing as advertised, Ford’s AWEs conducted more than 1,300 cycles during this latest at sea period that enabled the successful transfer of 176 inert bombs in support of air wing operations. Ford’s AWEs have conducted over 10,000 cycles to date....

...Clapperton emphasized that this PDT&T phase is all about operating Ford systems with fleet operators and discovering anomalies and working solutions. These solutions will be key to ensuring that when Ford enters the fleet after operational testing, the ship is ready to support the war fighter.

For example, on June 2, just prior to a scheduled flight deck operation cycle, the ship’s EMALS went down. Loss of EMALS curtailed flight operations to some extent, [ya think] but the strike group, ship and air wing team still accomplished significant goals scheduled for the Ford-class aircraft carrier, according to the release.

After several days of troubleshooting and assessing a fault in the launch system’s power handling elements, embarked EMALS experts and Ford’s crew restored the system to enable the safe fly-off of the air wing on Sunday morning, June 7.

“The ship’s response to these EMALS challenges underscores our ability to identify and to correct issues impacting flight operations quickly. [5 days?] That’s the purpose of the PDT&T phase,” said Clapperton. “The learning and improvement that results from pushing the systems will make the ship and air wing team better and more effective in future underway events.”"

Source: https://seapowermagazine.org/ford-compl ... ft-embark/

[spazsinbad]

Some more details about EMALS fault & fix: https://news.usni.org/2020/06/08/uss-ge ... ing-period

[spazsinbad]

Navy receives first production unit of next-gen precision landing system
09 Jun 2020 NavAir

"NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md.--USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) received the first production unit of the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS) in April, nearly a month ahead of schedule.

This is the first of 23 JPALS initial low-rate initial production (LRIP) units delivering through fall 2023. The Navy awarded Raytheon a $234 million contract in May 2019 for 23 JPALS units to outfit the Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships....

...CVN 70 JPALS installation and system operational verification test is scheduled to be completed in June.

JPALS development and demonstration began in 2008 with the first JPALS aircraft carrier landing in 2013 aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71); to date, five JPALS engineering and development models have been installed and tested on carriers and amphibious assault ships. JPALS initial operating capability is scheduled for 2024 and full-operational capability is scheduled for 2030. [Slowly Slowly Catchee Monkee]

Source: https://www.navair.navy.mil/news/Navy-r ... 92020-1200

[spazsinbad]

Navy Unsure If Recent EMALS Fault Was Equipment or Procedure Problem, But Workaround Has Been Validated
19 Jun 2020 Megan Eckstein

"The Navy still isn’t sure if a recent fault in the aircraft launching system onboard USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) was caused by a problem with the equipment itself or the procedures used to operate it, but the service’s top acquisition official said he’s confident in the system and that any remaining weak points are being wrung out during an ongoing post-delivery test and trials period.

On June 2, the Ford crew discovered a fault in the power handling system that connects the ship’s energy-generating turbines to the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) power system. This discovery came while they were conducting a manual reset of the system ahead of launching aircraft, while the air wing was onboard for the first time ever to conduct cyclic operations – compared to previous at-sea periods where test pilots were flying in a controlled test environment.

During the reset and pre-operations check, the crew discovered the system was in a condition they didn’t expect, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts told reporters this week.

“At no point was there a safety of flight issue associated with this. It was really as the crew was doing a manual reset of the system which was in accordance with the current procedures – they were doing pre-operations activities, they did a manual reset of the system, the system came up in a condition that didn’t look familiar to them based on the procedures we had. And so as they saw this, they troubleshot it, they came up with an amended procedure. Again, at no point was this a safety of flight issue,” Geurts said in response to a USNI News question. “Under abundance of caution, in conversation with everybody involved, we wanted to double-check, one, could we replicate the fault that appeared, and then two, given the fault, (validate) the procedure with which to clear that fault. … The team decided to replicate that fault at the ground-based test site (in Lakehurst, N.J.), double-check the procedure, validate the procedure, and then the ship used that procedure successfully and then immediately upon executing that launched the entire air wing.”

Asked what caused the fault in the first place, Geurts said he wasn’t sure if the equipment itself – the hardware or the software – had a problem, if the procedures used to do the manual reset needed to be refined, or if the crew needed additional training for this type of work. “We’re still going through the diagnosis, we’re doing full fault isolation to understand: the condition came up; what caused the condition to come up in that way? … How did we get in that state?”

Though the ship and engineers ashore at the ground-based test site have more work to do to understand what happened and how to prevent it in the future, Geurts said that’s the point of post-delivery test and trials: to pressure-test the gear, the training and the procedures. “In my mind, this is in the heart of the envelope of what we do PDT&T for, to really really test this stuff out,” Geurts said...." [then more about MORE land based test sites - weapon elevators for example]

Source: https://news.usni.org/2020/06/19/navy-u ... -validated

[spazsinbad]

Looks as though Youtube Videos will not play in IE11 now in this forum - google has been phasing IE11 out on boohootoob.

USS Gerald R. Ford's third commissioning birthday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUkA2ir90Cs

[boilermaker]

A friend of mine worked on the EMAL system of the 6 flags roller coasters and told me they had to abandon it because it is junk. Basically the tolerances are very small and a bit of rust will completely render the rails inoperable. He says he is not surprised the EMAL on the Ford does not work as advertise given it works in salt water myst environment, and even if it works, expects that it will have a much higher failure rate than minimum standards.

[spazsinbad]

So this is what the chap with the white glove is doing. I thought he was a son of Michael Jackson (deceased) or was mimicking the Chinese Carrier Navy Deck Crew use of the WHITE GLOVES. But hey I don't have a friend. I need a friend.

"Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Equipment) 3rd Class Darius Jarmon lubricates an electromagnetic aircraft launching system (EMALS) catapult aboard USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) in 2017. US Navy Photo https://news.usni.org/wp-content/upload ... 622081.jpg

[spazsinbad]

EMALS and AAG hit 4,000 aircraft recoveries, launches 11 Sep 2020 NavAir
https://www.navair.navy.mil/news/EMALS- ... 12020-1909

[spazsinbad]

A VIDEO is embedded at the URL below also...

EMALS technology on Ford carriers will help the US Navy accomplish its mission
14 Sep 2020 Vice Adm. Lewis W. Crenshaw Jr. (ret.)

"...This [EMALS] system has had its initial detractors and has been the subject of some debate as technical challenges were identified and overcome. Implementing ground-breaking, new innovations and capabilities has never been easy — but this is hardly an excuse not to pursue advancements that will help provide us with significant tactical and strategic advantages for the next 50 years.

For example, when fully optimized, EMALS will go from a cold start to launch-ready in about 15 minutes. Steam catapults take hours and significantly more nuclear energy to achieve the same level of readiness — and deplete the ship’s critical fresh water resources to operate.

As such, EMALS will enable Ford-class carriers to accommodate 160 sorties per day during normal conditions and an anticipated 270 during wartime operations. This is an almost 33 percent increase in sortie deployment capability from the Nimitz-class carrier’s capability during peacetime, and a 12.5 percent increase during wartime. This represents a drastic increase in the lethality and effectiveness of the ship....

...EMALS will improve the lifespan of the aircraft it launches. Due to its “triple-redundancy” safety interlocks, the risk of a “cold” cat-shot is all but eliminated, helping to keep our pilots safe. It has the ability to adjust and control the power needed to launch each aircraft at the precise end speed it requires, reducing wear and tear on both the aircraft and the ship, and giving commanders operational flexibility with “downwind” operations; in layman’s terms, allowing aircraft to be launched without repositioning the ship according to the direction of the wind.

Our naval aviators are also reporting significantly improved experience over a steam launch, and in addition to the pilots, the life of the crew on the ship is improved, as EMALS produces far less noise and takes up less space than steam catapults...."

Photo: "EMALS will improve the lifespan of the aircraft it launches, according to this commentary's author. (Mark D. Faram/Staff) https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/R4upv ... uality(100)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/mco/FDMWQWQPTVGMBDRBW4QX3WGA2A.jpg

Source: https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/com ... s-mission/

[spazsinbad]

THE COUNT is COUNTing....

General Atomics EMALS and AAG Reach 4,492 ‘Cats and Traps’ Milestone on Ford
07 Oct 2020 Seapower Staff

"SAN DIEGO, Calif. — General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced Oct. 7 that a milestone of 4,492 catapult launches and landing arrestments using the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) system has been successfully and safely achieved aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)...."

Source: https://seapowermagazine.org/general-at ... e-on-ford/

[madrat]

So testing is roughly 333 per month?

[spazsinbad]

Is that a statistic? Do you know no. of days at sea/dates/or do you require an average of both days at sea for flight ops?