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EMALS Components
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As the US Navy continues to build its new CVN-21 Gerald R. Ford Class carriers, few technologies are as important to their success as the next-generation EMALS (Electro-MAgnetic Launch System) catapult. The question is whether that technology will be ready in time, in order to avoid either costly delays to the program – or an even more costly redesign of the first ship of class.

Current steam catapult technology is very entertaining when it launches cars more than 100 feet off of a ship, or gives naval fighters the extra boost they need to achieve flight speed within a launch footprint of a few hundred feet. It’s also stressful for the aircraft involved, very maintenance intensive, and not really compatible with modern gas turbine propulsion systems. At present, however, steam is the only option for launching supersonic jet fighters from carrier decks. EMALS aims to leap beyond steam’s limitations, delivering significant efficiency savings, a more survivable system, and improved effectiveness. This free-to-view spotlight article covers the technology, the program, and its progress to date.

The latest developments include additional costs and continued testing, which is not yet finished…

• From Steam to Magnets: EMALS vs. Current Approaches
• Program Teams [NEW]
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings

From Steam to Magnets: EMALS vs. Current Approaches

Steam cat, ready
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Current steam catapults use about 615 kg/ 1,350 pounds of steam for each aircraft launch, which is usually delivered by piping it from the nuclear reactor. Now add the required hydraulics and oils, the water required to brake the catapult, and associated pumps, motors, and control systems. The result is a large, heavy, maintenance-intensive system that operates without feedback control; and its sudden shocks shorten airframe lifespans for carrier-based aircraft.

To date, it has been the only option available. Hence its use on all full-size carriers.

EMALS (Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System) uses an approach analogous to an electro-magnetic rail gun, in order to accelerate the shuttle that holds the aircraft. That approach provides a smoother launch, while offering up to 30% more launch energy potential to cope with heavier fighters. It also has far lower space and maintenance requirements, because it dispenses with most of the steam catapult’s piping, pumps, motors, control systems, etc. Ancillary benefits include the ability to embed diagnostic systems, for ease of maintenance with fewer personnel on board.

EMALS’ problem is that it has become a potential bottleneck to the USA’s new carrier class. It opportunity is that it may become the savior of Britain’s new carrier class.

The challenge is scaling a relatively new technology to handle the required weights and power. EMALS motor generator weighs over 80,000 pounds, and is 13.5 feet long, almost 11 feet wide and almost 7 feet tall. It’s designed to deliver up to 60 megajoules of electricity, and 60 megawatts at its peak. In the 3 seconds it takes to launch a Navy aircraft, that amount of power could handle 12,000 homes. This motor generator is part of a suite of equipment called the Energy Storage Subsystem, which includes the motor generator, the generator control tower and the stored energy exciter power supply. The new Gerald R. Ford Class carriers will require 12 of each.

Because it’s such a big change, it’s a critical technology if the US Navy wishes to deliver its new carrier class on-time and on-budget, and fulfill the CVN-21 program’s cost-saving promises. If EMALS cannot deliver on time, or perform as advertised, the extensive redesign and additional costs involved in adding steam catapult equipment throughout the ship could easily rise to hundreds of millions of dollars.

The related Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) sub-program will replace the current Mk 7 hydraulic system used to provide the carriers’ built-in system of arresting wires for carrier landings with the requisite combination of plane-slowing firmness and necessary flexibility. The winning AAG design replaces the mechanical hydraulic ram with rotary engines using proven energy-absorbing water turbines coupled to a large induction motor, providing fine control of the arresting forces. AAG is intended to allow successful landings with heavier aircraft, reduce manning and maintenance, and add capabilities like self-diagnosis and maintenance alerts. It will eventually be fitted to all existing Nimitz class aircraft carriers, as well as the new Gerald R. Ford class.

CVF concept
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EMALS may even prove critical to the future of the British CVF Queen Elizabeth Class, if the F-35B fighter proves unable to take off and land with full air-to-air armament. That’s a matter of some concern in Britain, which is looking into alternative landing approaches and sees the F-35C as its primary “Plan B” for naval aviation.

An F-35C would require catapults, however, and their new carrier’s CODAG (COmbined Diesel And Gas) propulsion doesn’t produce steam as a byproduct the way nuclear-powered carriers do. That threatens a significant redesign, and an accompanying rise in cost that could sink the program entirely. EMALS, on the other hand, would leverage the Queen Elizabeth Class’ design decision to become an all-electric ship, and require far less rework to install.

HMS Queen Elizabeth’s expected delivery date is now 2014-2015, and so the question is the same for Britain as it is for the USA: could a working, tested EMALS system be delivered in time?

Program Teams

The program is managed by US NAVAIR’s PMA-251, under the Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE) program manager. General Atomics’ EMALS team includes:

• GA’s Electromagnetic Systems Division – Electromagnetic System Design and Fabrication, System; Integration, Power Electronics and Controls, Software, and Logistics;
• Alion Science and Technology – Specialty Engineering;
• Kato Engineering – Energy Storage Systems Manufacture;
• L3 Communications’ Applied Technologies Pulse Sciences – Power Electronics;
• QinetiQ’s Foster Miller, Inc. – Control Systems, System Health Monitoring;
• STV, Inc. – Test Site Design/Integration, Naval System Logistics;
• University of Texas at Austin Center for Electromechanics – Energy Storage Systems Design and Analysis.

General Atomics’ related Advanced Arresting Gear team, which is part of the larger ALRE program and can be ordered under EMALS contracts, includes:

• GA’s Electromagnetic Systems Division – Systems Integration, Cable Drum and Cable Shock Absorber, Power Electronics/ Controls/ Software, Arresting Controls Software, System Health Monitoring, Test Site Design and Integration;
• Alion Science and Technology – Shipboard Integration, Thermal Systems, Electric Power;
• Curtiss-Wright Electro-Mechanical Corporation – Electric Motor;
• ESCO Corporation – Water Twister and Mechanical Brake Systems
• ITT Corporation – Naval System Logistics
• QinetiQ’s Foster Miller, Inc. – Control Workstations

Contracts and Key Events

CVN-74 hydraulics:
legacy system?
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Nov 12/09: NAVAIR’s Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment Program Office (PMA-251) will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the EMALS full-scale catapult test site at Joint Base McGuire-Fort Dix-Lakehurst, NJ. NAVAIR.

Future dead-load arrestment testing will begin in spring 2010, followed by aircraft arrestment testing scheduled for late 2010. ERT Phase 2 will begin February 2011 in GA’s Tupelo, MS manufacturing and test facility, and will test the equipment over an additional 104,000 cycles. GA-EMS believes that the transfer will help reduce program costs.

Sept 28/09: US Navy NAVAIR announces that EMALS has completed Phase 1 of Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) and the 2nd phase of System Functional Demonstration (SFD) commissioning.

HALT tests look at the system’s launch motor will perform under at-sea conditions, and provides data to verify peak performance, even in extreme conditions. SFD testing replicates full-scale launching capabilities, and SFD commissioning ensures that the system is ready for upcoming test launches of dead-loads (weighted, steel-framed sleds) and aircraft.

Phase 2 of SFD commissioning integrated and tested all power components of the system with the launch controller. The upcoming 3rd phase will integrate the remainder of the system, and test the basic ability to convert electrical power to mechanical force. The testing culminates with the launch of dead-load weights and non-operational test aircraft at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, NJ; commissioning with dead loads is scheduled to begin during fall 2009.

Aug 17/09: Inside the Navy reports that:

“The Navy has added another $24 million to the budget for a revamped research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) effort for the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System aboard the new Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers bringing FY-09 spending on developing the troubled program to more than $168 million.”

June 30/09: General Atomics in San Diego, CA received an unfinalized $573 million ceiling-priced contract to build the EMALS shipset for the Gerald R. Ford [CVN 78].

Work will be performed in San Diego, CA (49%); Tupelo, MS (19%); Mankato, MN (12%); Waltham, MA (4%); and various locations across the United States (16%), and is expected to be complete in September 2015. This contract was not competitively procured, pursuant to FAR 602-1. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, NJ manages this contract (N68335-09-C-0573).

April 15/09: Reuters reports that the U.S. Navy has completed a major review of EMALS that weighed possible technical, costs, and schedule risks. The Navy has decided to proceed, on the grounds that EMALS is the best option for keeping the program on schedule, vs. redesigning and building the ship for steam. The system’s potential cost savings are also listed as a factor by US Navy spokesman Lt. Cdr. Victor Chen.

The Navy is reportedly starting detailed, fixed-price contract negotiations with General Atomics. If that becomes the basis for a renegotiated contract, it would shift the risk of delays or additional work onto the contractor.

April 3/09: Naval site Information Dissemination runs an article assessing EMALS’ current state, and the Navy’s contention that the system poses no schedule risks. The title: “Wal-Mart Called, They Want Their Yellow Smiley Face Back.”

Despite the title, the background is valuable, and the discussion is substantive. Is EMALS a technology too far? Or is it just a complex technology with more issues than expected, each of which is being dealt with but at a rate that creates some schedule concerns? What, if anything, does a realistic Plan B look like? Delay construction until EMALS is ready, given its promised operations costs savings? Extensively redesign CVN 78 for steam catapults? Buy another CVN 77 design ship instead, and store the pieces that have already been made?

March 30/09: The US government’s GAO audit office issues GAO-09-326SP: “Defense Acquisitions: Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs.” With respect to EMALS and the CVN-21 program, it says that 10/14 technologies are either fully mature, including the nuclear propulsion and electrical plant, or approaching maturity. Of the remaining 4 immature technologies

”...the development and design of the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), the advanced arresting gear, and the dual band radar (composed of the volume search and multifunction radars) present the greatest risk to the ship’s cost and schedule.”

Ominously, it adds:

“A February 2008 program assessment recommended a number of changes to the EMALS program to improve performance. The Navy re-planned the test program and changed the management approach. The CVN 21 program office is now responsible for overseeing EMALS production and ship integration, rather than the Naval Air Systems Command. In addition, EMALS will no longer be provided as government-purchased equipment. Instead, the shipbuilder will purchase EMALS, giving it a more direct role in managing the integration on CVN 78. The cost impact of this change has not been finalized.”

There are also schedule concerns:

“Problems during EMALS development have already resulted in cost growth and schedule delays. In order to meet CVN 78’s delivery date, the Navy adopted a strategy that will test, produce, and ultimately install EMALS with a high degree of concurrency. In September 2008, the contractor completed the first round of high- cycle testing, gaining confidence in the performance of the generator—a source of past problems. Contractor-led integrated land-based system testing will not be complete until the end of fiscal year 2011—2-years later than estimated in December 2007. Assuming no further delays, EMALS will not demonstrate full performance of a shipboard ready system until at least 7 months after installation on CVN 78 has begun….”

March 31/09: The Daily Press of Virginia reports:

“We’re still conducting a review to assess and mitigate risks in the program cost, schedule and performance of EMALS,” said Lt. Cmdr. Victor Chen, a Navy spokesman. “At this point, EMALS is still the launching system of record for (the Ford).

....If EMALS is scrapped for the Ford, the shipyard would have to re-engineer the carrier to support the old steam-driven catapults used on previous ships. That process, which includes running thousands of feet of new pipe to and from the Ford’s propulsion system, could extend the construction schedule by up to a year and is expected to cost several hundred million dollars.”

“At this point…” is perhaps not the ringing endorsement one had hoped for.

March 27/09: Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Inc. in Newport News, VA received $43 million, unfinalized modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-08-C-2110). The contract covers long lead-time materials that must be ordered early, in order to ensure timely production of Gerald R. Ford’s [CVN 78] EMALS catapults. Materials bought will include Energy Storage Subsystem (ESS) Induction Motor Stator Assemblies, ESS Induction Motor Rotor Assemblies, ESS Exciter Stator Assemblies, ESS Exciter Rotor Assembly, ESS Rectifier Assemblies, ESS Main Rotor Assemblies and Power Conversion Subsystem Rectifier material components.

Work will be performed in North Mankato, MN (74%); Mt. Pleasant, PA (17%); and San Diego, CA (9%), and is expected to be complete by November 2012. The US The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington Navy Yard, D.C. manages this contract.

March 19/09: NAVAIR’s EMALS developers have given a green light to engineers at General Atomics in Tupelo, MS to engage in full power train testing of EMALS motor components.

This second phase of High Cycle Testing (HCT-2) will involve full power train testing, and will give a specific prediction of EMALS operations. HCT-2 will also perform environmental qualification testing, which is used to confirm the adequacy of the equipment design and safety under normal, abnormal, design basis event, post design basis event and in-service test conditions. US NAVAIR.

Dec 23/08: Sauer, Incorporated in Jacksonville, FL wins an $8.3 million firm-fixed-price task order to design and build an Electromagnetic Launch RDT&E(Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation) facility at Naval Support Activity South Potomac in Dahlgren, VA (N62477-04-D-0036, #008).

Work is expected to be complete by May 2010. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Washington in Washington, DC received 5 proposals under an existing multiple-award construction contract.

EMALS motor, HCT-1
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Sept 3/08: EMALS reaches the 10,000 High Cycle Testing, phase 1 (HCT-1) milestone at the General Atomics test facility in Tupelo. HCT-1 was conducted in order to verify the performance capabilities of EMALS’ electrical and thermal power equipment, and the shipboard cycling rate of the energy storage subsystem. Those tests reduce the risk of structural failure, strengthen confidence in EMALS’ reliability, and help to validate both system life predictions and electromagnetic interference predictions.

EMALS is scheduled to begin its second phase of HCT in winter 2009. US NAVAIR.

March 14/08: During US House Armed Services Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee hearings about the proposed the FY 2009 budget, chairman Gene Taylor [D-MS] discusses the state of the program:

“Another very risky program is the new aircraft carrier. Not that the Navy and Newport News Shipyard don’t know how to build aircraft carriers, they do. However, one of the major new technologies, the electro-magnetic launch system, or EMALS, has not even been tested in a shipboard configuration and the ship is already under construction. Just this last week the Navy requested an additional $40 million dollars for continued development of EMALS because, and I quote, ‘the contractor underestimated design and production cost.’ The cynic in me would say the contractor purposefully low-balled the bid to get the contract knowing full well the Navy would be forced to pay whatever the true costs of the system turned out to be. Perhaps we should have built another Nimitz class carrier until the research and design for EMALS was complete.”

Read “US Navy’s 313-Ship Plan Under Fire in Congress” for more.

April 17/08: The first full size test motor generator for the Navy’s Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) has now been assembled, and finished its 30 days of factory acceptance testing at Kato Engineering’s plant in Mankato, MN on April 11/08.

The motor generator weighs over 80,000 pounds, and is 13.5 feet long, almost 11 feet wide and almost 7 feet tall. It’s designed to deliver up to 60 megajoules of electricity and 60 megawatts at its peak. In the 3 seconds it takes to launch a Navy aircraft, that amount of power could handle 12,000 homes. This motor generator is part of a suite of equipment called the Energy Storage Subsystem, which includes the motor generator, the generator control tower and the stored energy exciter power supply. The new Gerald R. Ford Class will require 12 of each, and 5 of each are currently being manufactured under General Atomics’ Systems Development & Demonstration contract. One is slated for component level testing, and 4 will be installed and used for system level testing at the Lakehurst, N.J., EMALS catapult site. NAVAIR release.

Nov 28/07: General Atomics’ Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapult recently passed its final critical design review (CDR), led by Mr. Dave Cohen of NAVAIR’s Systems Engineering competency. The team spent a week thoroughly reviewing the entire EMALS program, and determined that the design is technically compliant with requirements and properly documented, although “a few open action items remain.” As noted above, EMALS is one of the new technologies that will be critical to the CVN-21 Class’ ability to fulfil its cost-saving promises and enter service on time.

Capt. Stephen Rorke, Aircraft Launch & Recovery Equipment program manager thanked the team for open and honest dialog during the months leading up to the CDR as evidenced by the fact “the team knew about all open issues prior to the review and that no issues of major significance surfaced during the CDR.”

The next step in the process is to begin installing the full size, ship representative EMALS equipment in the recently completed EMALS test facilities at Naval Engineering Station Lakehurst, NJ. The EMALS equipment installation is scheduled to begin in mid 2008, with actual testing to begin in early 2009 and continue throughout 2009. The first components of the EMALS equipment is scheduled to be delivered to Northrop-Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding in Norfolk, VA for installation in the Gerald R. Ford [CVN-78] in 2011. The USS Gerald R. Ford is scheduled to be delivered to the US Navy in 2015. NAVAIR release.

Nov 27/07: Officials at the Lakehurst Naval Base hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to acknowledge the completion of the base’s new Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) facility. General Atomics will have the system’s equipment installed at the Lakehurst base in the beginning of March 2008, with the strong intent of beginning testing in February 2009. Manchester Times story.

March 17/06: General Atomics’ team receives $6 million for engineering changes to the EMALS catapult system.

April 2/04: General Atomics is awarded a System Development and Demonstration (SDD) $145 million contract to design, build, integrate test and support a full scale, full length, shipboard representative Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) for NAVAIR Lakehurst, at the Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, NJ. The contract is the final step in a multi-phase research and development acquisition program to replace the current steam catapults used on aircraft carriers. According to the Navy release, “General Atomics, based in San Diego, will have its equipment installed at Lakehurst by 2006 and conduct testing in 2007-2008.”

The EMALS land based support facility is to be built by Hensel Phelps Construction Co., of Aurora, CO under a $20.5 million contract, and is expected to be complete by December 2005 [DID: the ribbon cutting would actually take place in November 2007, and construction will last to late 2008]. It will include building the infrastructure, supporting buildings and related utilities for the EMALS program. US Navy | General Atomics.

Additional Readings

• American Heritage Magazine (Spring 2006) – Shot Into the Air. A very good look at the use of naval catapults from their earliest days to the forthcoming EMALS. Includes a fine conceptual schematic of the modern steam catapult.

• GlobalSecurity.org – Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System – EMALS

• NAVAIR – Aircraft Launch & Recovery Equipment (ALRE)

• General Atomics – Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS)

• NAVAIR PMA-251 – Advanced Arresting Gear Program

• General Atomics – Advanced Arresting Gear

• Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine (Dec 2007 – Jan 2008) – How Things Work: Electro-Magnetic Catapults

• Aviation Week (July 13/07) – Risk Areas In CVN 21 Cost, Development

• Defense Tech (April 5-7/07) – EMALS: Next-Generation Catapult and Building a New Ford. Latter includes some interesting background re: EMALS integration challenges and solutions.

• Electronics Design News (April 11/02) – Electronics poised to replace steam-powered aircraft launch. See esp. the references and linked diagrams.

• DID FOCUS Article – Design & Preparations Continue for the USA’s New CVN-21 Super-Carrier

• DID (Dec 19/05) – Costing the CVN-21: A DID Primer. Sets the record straight on the CVN-21 Class’ cost per ship, and also goes into detail re: the lifetime operating cost savings expected as a result of design and technology innovations.

• DID FOCUS Article – Design & Preparations Continue for Britain’s New CVF Future Carrier (updated)