The United States Navy is testing new technology that brings a new twist to a timeless tool: the catapult. Used throughout history in warfare, modern catapults have been used on aircraft carriers for decades to accelerate airplanes across short flight decks.
Typically powered by steam, Navy catapults help get large, heavy fighter planes moving faster in a shorter period of time so they can take off on the limited runway space that is available on an aircraft carrier. These catapults would rely on steam pressure to make incredible acceleration possible as heavily armed jets head for their targets. All that is changing with the new electromagnetic catapults that work on electricity and magnetism rather than on steam and brute force.
Unproven technology
As the Navy feverishly works to produce the first revolution in aircraft carrier design in decades, one challenge has been the elimination of the steam catapult, a foundational element of the aircraft carrier launch system that has been in place for decades.
A new class of American aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford class, is expected to be fitted with new electromagnetic catapults called EMALS (Electo-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System) that use less energy to power and are rearmed faster than their older counterparts.
The Navy apparently is interested in the capability EMALS has of getting more aircraft into the air in less time, but is also interested in a catapult system that can effectively be used with the smaller, pilot-less aircraft that have taken center stage in recent years.
Test launches at a Navy engineering facility in New Jersey seem to be successful enough for any analysts to believe that the technology will be perfected in time for deployment when the first Ford class carriers emerge in the next couple of years.
Don’t forget about China
The communist Chinese government, awash with cash from American interest payments, is making its own aircraft carrier in a presumed effort to combat America’s military power in the Pacific. Although little is known about the technology the Chinese are using on their new endeavor, one can only wonder if it is not the very latest technology being deployed by the American military. During the Clinton years, media disclosures seemed to suggest that Bill Clinton had traded Navy submarine technology for campaign donations. Since then China has been able to implement quiet electric engine technology that took the United States decades and billions of dollars to develop.
According to Navy Times, EMALS will undergo intense scrutiny in 2011 as military leaders decide whether or not the new technology is reliable enough for use in critical times such as war. If EMALS does not earn enough confidence, plans for the new carriers will have to be reworked, potentially leading to serious production delays.
