Technical problems and the testing schedule of a new landing system pose the biggest obstacle to delivering the first ship of the Gerald R Ford (CVN-78) class of aircraft carriers on time, and are already pushing it “slightly” past the target date, a Navy admiral said Thursday.
The first of the 10 planned ships in the class, the future USS Gerald R Ford (CVN-78) being built in Newport News, Va., by Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII], is scheduled to deliver by March 31, 2016.
While the final stage of construction is going smoothly, one area the Navy is keeping a close eye on is the new system for slowing and stopping aircraft as they land known as the advanced arresting gear (AAG) system, which experienced developmental problems and fell two years behind schedule, Rear Adm. Thomas Moore, the program executive officer for aircraft carriers, told reporters during a roundtable at Washington Navy Yard.
“The advanced arresting gear is the one thing that I am watching the most. If I look at the current projection of when the shipyard would finish the installation and testing, it goes slightly past 31 March,” Moore said. “We are working to try to pull that back, but right now the advanced arresting gear is my critical path toward delivering the ship.”
To make up the lost time and in an attempt to hit the delivery date, the Navy has begun installing the AAG even though some of the most critical ground testing won’t begin until later this year in Lakehurst, N.J., Moore said. Carrying both out simultaneously increases risk because if new problems arise, it will be harder to fix them while the AAG is installed on the Ford, he said.
“My major risk area is that I’ve got to concurrently test it at Lakehurst while I am installing it on the ship,” he said. “We don’t know what we don’t know at this point.”
The AAG uses electric motors and energy absorbing water turbines to slow and stop aircraft, a system billed as more precise and easier to maintain than the MK 7 system on the current class of Nimitz (CVN-68) that relies on mechanical-hydraulic engines. The AAG, developed by General Atomics, required some redesign and strengthening of parts in a water turbine component known as the “water twister.” The water twister absorbs 70 percent of a landing aircraft’s energy.
The initial design failed to appreciate the force that had to be handled by the water twister and put too much pressure on its parts, Moore said. But he now believes the right fixes have been made.
“We have worked out all the problems with the water twister,” he said.
The Navy has begun testing the rebuilt AAG using jet-powered cars, but won’t start using aircraft in the ground testing until October, Moore said, starting with an F/A-18 Super Hornet.
The AAG is one of several new technologies the Navy is introducing to the Ford class that have been partly responsible for cost overruns and pushed the current price tag for the first ship to $12.9 billion. Another key reason for the cost increases was the beginning of construction before the design was complete, a mistake Navy officials have vowed not to repeat.
Another new technology is the electro-magnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) that is replacing the steam-driven catapult that has powered aircraft off U.S. carriers for decades. The EMALS catapult uses electromagnetic pulses to generate the energy to launch the aircraft and is said to be smoother than its steam counterpart and thereby reduces stress on the aircraft.
The EMALS has also posed technical challenges, but is already installed on the Ford and will undergo ship-based testing this summer. The testing involves launching “sleds” off the ship and into the James River. Aircraft will not be launched until after the Ford delivers, Moore said.
The Navy is also gearing up for the second Ford-class carrier, the future John F. Kennedy (CVN-79). It has been under advanced procurement and the final detailed design and construction contract is expected to be issued to Huntington Ingalls Industries in May, Moore said.