General Atomics to Build New Carrier Aircraft Catapults

Sea Power, May 2004 by Burgess, Richard R

A sea change in aircraft carrier design and operations is coming with the Navy's selection of General Atomics to design and build a new method for powering the catapults that launch airplanes from aircraft carriers.

The San Diego-based company has been awarded a five-year, $145 million contract from the Naval Air Warfare Center's Aircraft Division for the system development and demonstration of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS).

The EMALS will revolutionize aircraft carrier flight operations by replacing the existing maintenance-intensive steam-powered catapults on aircraft carriers, beginning with CVN 78, the first carrier of the next-generation CVN-21 class. The EMALS uses electric current, rather than steam power, to drive a sled attached to the nose gear of an aircraft down a magnetic track, flinging the plane off the carrier's bow or angle.

General Atomics officials said that the new system would result in lower life-cycle costs by producing less stress on aircraft, aircrews and flight-deck personnel, and requiring fewer personnel to maintain and operate. The EMALS also would eliminate the need for many heavy and complex steam lines running throughout the aircraft carrier.

General Atomics was selected by the Navy after completing a four-year, $80 million program definition phase in competition with Northrop Grumman. General Atomies' full-scale launcher was installed and evaluated in a halftrack at the Naval Air Warfare Center facility in Lakehurst, N.J.

Teamed with General Atomies' Electronics Systems and Aeronautical Systems sectors are John J. McMullen Associates Inc., Kato Engineering, Foster-Miller Inc., Titan Pulse Sciences Division, STV Inc., and the Center for Electromechanics at the University of Texas.

By RICHARD R. BURGESS

Managing Editor