By Geoff Fein
The recent keel laying for the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) marked a new beginning for the design and operation of the Navy’s future aircraft carrier fleet.
Additionally, the Ford will be the first carrier and largest warship to be built using 3-D modeling, Capt. Brian Antonio, program manager for future aircraft carriers, told media during a briefing at the Navy Yard last week.
“We are very close to finishing the 3-D product model,” he said.
The Navy and Northrop Grumman [NOC] Shipbuilding got off to a running start with the Ford, Rear Adm. Michael McMahon, program executive officer carriers, told reporters.
“We’ve done a lot of work up front. We’ve worked a lot on this ship. It’s not your typical keel laying where you are just starting structural work,” he said. “We’ve actually been working this for years.”
At the time of the Nov. 14 keel laying, 577 of the ship’s 1,177 structural units have been completed, Antonio said.
Antonio also oversees all the concurrent development efforts including the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) and the advanced arresting gear. It’s those systems that make CV-78 unique, he added.
“When we get to delivery in September 2015, which we are on track to do, part of my responsibility is to make sure those other developmental systems come along and hook up with us at the right time,” Antonio said, “so that we deliver a fully capable, fully integrated ship in 2015.”
EMALS, which is going through testing at the Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, N.J., has had a tough go of it. Lawmakers have routinely questioned whether the technology is too advanced at this point in time and debated whether the Navy needs to install steam catapults on the Ford.
For its part, the Navy has stuck with EMALS. In April, the service reaffirmed its commitment to the program (Defense Daily, April 17).
EMALS will bring the ability to launch a variety of aircraft, from unmanned aircraft up to Super Hornets and the Joint Strike Fighter.
EMALS is in System Functional Demonstration, Antonio said.
“We are getting ready to start counting for score…start launching no loads at full speed, then dead loads at full speed,” he said. “Hopefully, by next summer, we will be up there launching aircraft.”
The Navy’s plan is to launch a F-18 from EMALS in July 2010, Antonio said.
Additionally, the Navy and General Atomics are conducting high cycle testing on an individual generator, Antonio added.
To date, the Navy and GA have run close to 30,000 cycles pulses on the generator, he said.
“We’ve learned a lot about the motor generator, which is a subcomponent of EMALS. We’ve learned a lot…we are retiring risk all the time on the SDD side,” Antonio added.
The Navy is continuing negotiations with GA on a fixed-price contract for the first ship set of EMALS components for CVN-78, he added.
As the EMALS effort progresses, the Navy is keeping an eye on other potential challenges including electromagnetic interference and environmental impact, to the EMALS’ components, Antonio said.
“We have designed, based on analysis and initial readings on earlier version of EMALS, a production demonstration risk reduction version. [It] shows we are OK,” he said.
However, now that the Navy has a full representative model of EMALS, there are plans to conduct another set of readings, Antonio said.
“[We are] already looking forward to what risk mitigation efforts would need to be put in place for that sort of thing,” he added.
The Navy has also put the linear motor through extensive temperature and salt spray testing, McMahon noted. “The whole intent is to find issues.”
Although the first at-sea use of EMALS won’t occur until the system is installed on the Ford, by that time the Navy and GA will have had five years of experience of continually running the new technology at the Lakehurst site, Antonio said.