General Atomics Begins Fleet Training On New Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch Systems

General Atomics begins the first round of fleet training on the new Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch Systems (EMALS) currently being installed on CVN 78 (Gerald R. Ford), the first carrier to have EMALS.

GA was earlier awarded the prime contract to provide EMALS and AAG systems for CVN 78 in June 2009 and is manufacturing the CVN 78 hardware concurrently with the System Design and Demonstration (SDD) programs.

Hardware delivery to CVN 78 is scheduled to be completed in 2015, with dead-load launches beginning in 2015. CVN 78 is scheduled to join the fleet in 2016, with at-sea EMALS aircraft launches beginning shortly thereafter.