The Navy awarded General Atomics a $1.196 billion modification to a previous contract adding scope for production work of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) system parts to be installed on the fourth
Ford-class aircraft carrier.
As a Ford-class carrier, the future USS Doris Miller (CVN-81) will field the EMALS system to more efficiently launch aircraft and the AAG system to help them land on it.
The Defense Department contract announcement said this award specifically covers adding scope to production, assembly, test and management of the EMALS hardware with embedded software and firmware, minus Energy Storage Subsystem, as well as the AAG shipsets hardware with embedded software and firmware for CVN-81.
This modification also seeks to resolve EMALS and AAG hardware obsolescence, including firmware obsolescence.
DoD said this award also resolves “non-recurring engineering in support of evaluation and implementation of engineering changes to product hardware, software, technical data, and logistics products through the configuration management process associated with the EMALS and AAG System for the CVN 81 aircraft carrier.”
“Having GA-EMS now under contract to provide EMALS and AAG for the CVN 81 enables greater efficiency and utilization of our unique capabilities and resources to help meet construction and maintenance requirements and fleet readiness for all Ford-class carriers going forward,” Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS, said in a statement.
General Atomics’ Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) division previously delivered the EMALS and AAG systems to the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and it’s under contract to support sustainment requirements for the systems on the ship and is also under contract to continue delivering the two systems to the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) and USS Enterprise (CVN-80).
Rolf Ziesing, vice president of GA-EMS Maritime Programs, said EMALS and AAG certification on CVN-79 is currently underway and that more 80 percent of production has been completed on CVN-80 systems,
Notably, this award also includes case study and developmental research in support of France ultimately procuring EMALS and AAG for their future Porte-Avions Nouvelle Génération (PANG) carrier program.
France expects the PANG program to build a new nuclear–powered aircraft carrier to replace the French Navy’s current Charles de Gaulle carrier starting around 2038. The new carrier is set to be about 82,673 U.S. tons and 1,017 feet long and field about 30 fighters in its airwing.
France currently only has one aircraft carrier and the PANG, with EMALS and AAG, would replace it.
Previously, in late 2021 the State Department approved a potential $1.3 billion Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to France for the EMALS and AAG. The systems covered one EMALS in a two-launcher configuration, one AAG in a three-engine configuration plus land-based testing and spares, shipboard installation and associated program support (Defense Daily, Dec. 21, 2021).
Then, in August 2022, General Atomics won a nearly $9 million order for the development of a two or three launch motor subsystem and two energy storage group tailored configuration of the EMALS and a three wire, six energy absorber subsystem AAG compatible with France’s future carrier, with work set to be finished by this month.
Work under this modification will be split among San Diego (58.1 percent); Tupelo, Miss. (40.2 percent); and Lakehurst, N.J. (1.7 percent) and is expected to be finished in nearly a decade, by September 2032.
$67 million in fiscal year 2023 Navy shipbuilding funds and $128,000 in FMS customer funds were obligated at the time of award but will not expire at the end of this year.