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The EMALS comes in 2 launcher configuration while the AAG will have 3 engines.

As noted by Alert 5, France has secured the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) for its next aircraft carrier as the US State Department approved the Foreign Military Sale on Dec. 21, 2021.

According to Transmittal No 21-65, the EMALS comes in 2 launcher configurations while the AAG will have 3 engines. The package is worth up to $1.321 billion.

EMALS is the US Navy’s newest complete carrier-based launch system designed for USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) and future Ford-class carriers. The launching system is designed to expand the operational capability of Ford-class carriers, providing the Navy with the capability for launching all current and future carrier air wing platforms – lightweight unmanned to heavy strike fighters. The mission and function of EMALS remain the same as the traditional steam catapult; however, it employs entirely different technologies. EMALS uses stored kinetic energy and solid-state electrical power conversion. This technology permits a high degree of computer control, monitoring, and automation.

Benefits

• Increased reliability and efficiency
• More accurate end-speed control and smoother acceleration
• Expanded operational capability with increased sortie rates
• Cost reduction over time due to decreased manning and maintenance requirements
• Ability to launch a broader range of naval aircraft – from lightweight unmanned to heavy strike fighters- with less stress on the ship and aircraft
• Provides necessary higher launch energy capacity
• Substantial improvements in system weight, volume, and maintenance
• EMALS over steam catapults means quieter and cooler work and living spaces for Sailors
• More intuitive maintenance software will reduce troubleshooting times

AAG is a modular, integrated system consisting of energy absorbers, power conditioning equipment, and digital controls, designed as the follow-on to the Mark-7 (Mk-7) arresting gear. The Navy is currently utilizing the Mk-7 Mod 3 and Mk-7 Mod 4 designs on all Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.

The AAG architecture, Health Monitoring Assessment and Prognostics technology, and digital control system provide built-in tests and diagnosis, resulting in the system requiring less maintenance and manpower to operate than the Mk-7. This change in architecture is designed to provide higher reliability and safety margins while allowing Sailors to focus on other areas of need. The system is also designed to allow the potential arrestment of a broader range of aircraft, from the lightest unmanned aerial vehicles to the heaviest manned fighters.

Benefits:

• Employs advanced technologies to provide higher reliability and safety margins
• Requires less maintenance and manpower to operate than the legacy arresting system
• Recovers all current and projected future carrier-based aircraft, from the lightest unmanned aerial vehicles to the heaviest manned fighters
• Allows for increased sortie rates, lower energy consumption, and a decreased gross ship weight

Photo by U.S. Navy

The US Navy and Boeing have successfully maneuvered an MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial refueler on a US Navy aircraft carrier for the first time.

The US Navy and Boeing have successfully maneuvered the Boeing-owned T1 test asset on a US Navy aircraft carrier for the first time – an early step forward in ensuring the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial refueler will seamlessly integrate into carrier operations.

According to a Boeing news release, during an underway demonstration aboard the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), Navy flight deck directors – known as “yellow shirts” – used standard hand signals to direct T1 just like any other carrier-based aircraft. Instead of a pilot receiving the commands, however, it was a Boeing MQ-25 Deck Handling Operator (DHO) right beside the “yellow shirt” who commanded the aircraft using a new handheld deck control device.

“This is another significant step forward in demonstrating MQ-25’s integration into the Carrier Air Wing on the flight deck of our Fleet’s aircraft carriers,” said Capt. Chad Reed, Unmanned Carrier Aviation program manager. “The success of this event is a testament to the hard work of our engineers, testers, operators, and the close collaboration and teaming from Naval Air Force Atlantic and the crew aboard CVN 77.”

The demonstration was intended to ensure the design of the MQ-25 will successfully integrate into the carrier environment and to evaluate the functionality, capability, and handling qualities of the deck handling system both in day and night conditions. Maneuvers included taxiing on the deck, connecting to the catapult, clearing the landing area, and parking on the deck.

“Early testing allowed our team the opportunity to evaluate many new systems for the first time at sea with T1,” said Reed in a NAVAIR news release. “Our initial look at taxi operations on the flight deck successfully demonstrated the MQ-25’s ability to maneuver just like a manned aircraft in the shipboard environment.”

“The Navy has a rigorous, well-established process for moving aircraft on the carrier. Our goal was to ensure the MQ-25 fits into the process without changing it,” said Jim Young, MQ-25 chief engineer. “From the design of the aircraft to the design of the system moving it, our team has worked hard to make the MQ-25 carrier suitable in every way.”

DHO’s trained in Boeing’s deck handling simulation lab in St. Louis, where they practiced entering commands from simulated “yellow shirts” into the real handheld device. A simulated MQ-25, running the aircraft’s real operational flight code and interfaces, would move accordingly. The handheld controller is a simple, easy-to-use device designed specifically for a generation of sailors who natively understand such handheld technology and have experience with controllers used in the gaming industry today.

The deck handling demonstration followed a two-year flight test campaign for the Boeing-owned T1 test asset, during which the Boeing and Navy team refueled three different carrier-based aircraft – an F/A-18 Super Hornet, an E-2D Hawkeye, and an F-35C Lightning II.

“The Navy gave us two key performance parameters for the program – aerial refueling and integration onto the carrier deck,” said Dave Bujold, Boeing MQ-25 program director. “We’ve shown that the MQ-25 can meet both requirements, and we’ve done it years earlier than traditional acquisition programs.”

When operational, the director and deck operators will be able to taxi the MQ-25 on the carrier flight deck to the catapult launch position and to a parking location after landing. The MQ-25 will be controlled while airborne from the UAWC where the air vehicle operator executes a pre-planned mission.

The MQ-25 will be the world’s first operational, carrier-based unmanned aircraft and is integral to the future carrier air wing (CVW). It will provide an aerial refueling capability that extends the range, operational capability, and lethality of the CVW and carrier strike group (CSG).

Photo by U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Brandon Roberson

Western allies have expressed confidence to recover the wreckage of the British F-35B Lightning II before Russia beats them to recover and gain critical technological know-how in the sophisticated fifth-generation fighter aircraft

Western allies have expressed confidence to recover the wreckage of the British F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter jet that crashed in the Mediterranean while taking off from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth on Nov. 17, 2021, before Russia beats them to recover and gain critical technological know-how into the sophisticated fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

Following months in the Indo-Pacific region as part of her global deployment, HMS Queen Elizabeth is currently in the Mediterranean heading west back to the UK.

According to various UK news outlets, the pilot of the F-35B was forced to eject after a rain cover not lifted was sucked into the stealth plane during takeoff from the aircraft carrier.

The following video was leaked online and appears to feature the crash of the UK F-35B.

As reported by The EurAsian Times, the plan is now to recover the wreckage of the F-35B before Russia finds it. Russia in fact may try to recover the sunken debris of the aircraft to gain critical insights into its cutting-edge technology according to US military officer Brigadier-General Simon Doran.

He said: “We’ll get it first, I promise you.” Doran was echoed by NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Tim Radford, who told journalists on board the vessel sailing in the Mediterranean: “[w]e’re not concerned at all about recovering it.”

However, further details regarding the recovery efforts were not disclosed.

The loss of the aircraft, according to Commodore Steve Moorhouse, the UK carrier strike group led by HMS Queen Elizabeth, was “a hugely unfortunate incident” and “a setback”.

He also said that “[t]he reliability of the aircraft or confidence in it and the project is undiminished.”

To understand if the western apprehension about Russia laying its hand on this American-made platform is genuine, The EurAsian Times spoke to several military analysts.

Military author, columnist, and defense analyst Joseph P Chacko shared his view: ‘Rival countries are interested in each other’s military developments. The relevant special services are always engaged in the extraction of samples of foreign military equipment, including raised and sunken foreign weapons.

‘Russia has the means to lift sunken objects from the seabed as the country had retrieved its carrier-based aircraft from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

‘The F-35 was equipped with top-secret radar and the most modern instruments and sensors that allowed it to fly at supersonic speeds and remain invisible. The British military is now recovering the debris.

‘The main thing, they believe, is that it does not fall into the hands of the enemy. First of all, the Russian Navy. The open-source information mentions that the F-35 crashed into the East Mediterranean Sea.’

By contrast Philippines-based airpower analyst, Miguel Miranda says that, ‘Nothing really [will be gleaned] as the Russians have the same tech. An F-35B was lost? The Russians certainly know what an F-35B can do.’

Moscow-based American political analyst Andrew Korybko shared his assessment, calling it “typical anti-Russian fearmongering meant to advance preplanned geopolitical hostility,”

“There’s no credible indication that Russian subs are racing towards the F-35’s Mediterranean underwater grave, but NATO’s claims that it supposedly is could revive the past years’ hysteria about Russian submarines and the alleged threat they pose (particularly to undersea cables per Western Mainstream Media speculation),” Korybko said.

“The Mediterranean is basically a NATO lake for the most part. It’s unrealistic to imagine that Russia could covertly dispatch a submarine to the F-35’s underwater grave, somehow obtain usable information about it (if not retrieve parts of it), and escape without anyone knowing, chasing them down, provoking an international confrontation, or whatever else.

“The story, therefore, sounds like typical anti-Russian fearmongering meant to advance preplanned geopolitical hostility against the Eurasian Great Power. It’s not worthy to even speculate about what would happen if Russia reached the site first since it’s not credible to even claim that it’s trying to, let alone could do so and get away with it in this NATO lake.”

Some observers pointed out that anything ranging from the lift fan to the engine itself would benefit the Russians as US engines are believed to possess more technological sophistication.

They are of the opinion that if the plane or the wreckage is salvaged, Russia would have a lot to gain as its indigenous aerospace industry has been lagging behind. But there are others who do not subscribe to this view.

As we have previously reported, earlier in the deployment F-35 jets from HMS Queen Elizabeth intercepted Russian jets in the eastern Mediterranean more than 30 times as part of the Carrier Strike Group. Now that the vessels have returned to the region after sailing to the Pacific and back it appears Russian interest has been renewed.

“It is not a secret the Russians have been very interested in the carrier group both on the way out from the United Kingdom – as she’s sailed and her group towards the Pacific – and now she is back in the Mediterranean,” Defence Secretary Ben Wallace explained to Sky News.

However, this would not be the first time that the Russians would try “to fish” a NATO fighter aircraft that fell off an aircraft carrier.

The Soviets in fact tried to go fishing for a VF-32 F-14 that fell off the USS John F. Kennedy on Sep. 14, 1976 – after the plane’s control systems went haywire and the pilot/RIO had to eject. At the time, the John F. Kennedy was off Scapa Flow (in Scotland’s northern islands) which wasn’t too far from the Soviet backyard, and this gave them plausible cover to attempt a recovery of the aircraft by posing as a fishing fleet conducting normal fishing operations.

Nevertheless, the Tomcat wreckage was finally recovered by the US Navy’s NR-1, a nuclear research submarine. The NR-1 crew observed that it had indeed been thoroughly harassed by Soviet efforts – with the fuselage roughed up quite a bit and entangled in fishing nets that had no business being there (the area of Scapa Flow doesn’t have any commercial fish stocks at the depth where Kennedy’s F-14 was sitting). At first, the NR-1 couldn’t account for an AIM-54 Phoenix, but the missile was eventually spotted after working a grid pattern going outwards from the F-14.

Photo by Gunnie Moberg, Crown Copyright

With British, American, and Italian F-35B jets taking off from HMS Queen Elizabeth, this marked the first time that three nations have flown jets from the same aircraft carrier

Italian F-35B Lightning II short takeoff-vertical landing (STOVL) stealth jets launched from the Italian carrier Cavour have landed, refueled, and relaunched from British carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

According to UK Defence Journal, with British, American, and Italian F-35B jets taking off from HMS Queen Elizabeth, this marked the first time that three nations have flown jets from the same aircraft carrier.

Following months in the Indo-Pacific region as part of her global deployment, HMS Queen Elizabeth is currently in the Mediterranean heading west back to the UK. In doing so the ship has continued her program of working with allied nations and partners, says the Royal Navy.

According to the Royal Navy, Italy is the third nation to land F-35Bs on the carrier.

“On completion of the refueling, HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH launched an Italian Navy F-35, Italian Air Force F-35, USMC F-35, and finally an F-35B from the UK 617 squadron. The jets then operated in the skies above the two carriers developing their interoperability and mutual understanding of procedures. HMS Queen Elizabeth is the deployed flagship for Carrier Strike Group 21(CSG21). CSG21 will see the ship along with the Strike Group work with over 40 countries from around the world. The Strike Group will operate and exercise with other Countries’ Navies and Air Forces during the 7-month deployment.”

Aside from the US and UK, Italy is the only other NATO partner to operate the B-model of the F-35. With the flights by the Italian F-35Bs, HMS Queen Elizabeth has now hosted onboard jets from three different countries since leaving home in May. Italy is the first European NATO partner to land on the UK flight deck.

Royal Navy Commodore Steve Moorhouse, Commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group, said that “The fact that US, Italian, and UK F-35Bs are able to fly to and from one another’s decks offers tactical agility and strategic advantage to NATO.”

Noteworthy, as reported by UK Defence Journal, earlier in the deployment F-35 jets from HMS Queen Elizabeth intercepted Russian jets in the eastern Mediterranean more than 30 times as part of the Carrier Strike Group. Now that the vessels have returned to the region after sailing to the Pacific and back it appears Russian interest has been renewed.

Russia in fact had shown a renewed interest in HMS Queen Elizabeth and its F-35 jets as they headed home through the Mediterranean, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace explained to Sky News.

“It is not a secret the Russians have been very interested in the carrier group both on the way out from the United Kingdom – as she’s sailed and her group towards the Pacific – and now she is back in the Mediterranean.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the largest and most powerful vessel ever constructed for the Royal Navy. The ship is capable of carrying up to 40 aircraft.

The flight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth is used to launch the new F-35B Joint Strike Fighter fast jet. Four fighter jets can be moved from the hangar to the flight deck in just one minute.

The ship’s two propellers weigh 33 tonnes each. The powerplant behind them generates enough power to run 1000 family cars.

Photo by Crown Copyright

HMS Queen Elizabeth has been kitted out with specially-designed LED lighting on her flight deck to aid nighttime landings

Taken on Oct. 3, 2018, the amazing pictures in this post show Royal Navy and Royal Air Force Test Pilots conducting the first-night flying trials off the United Kingdom’s largest warship, HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The trials included state-of-the-art night-vision technology, with the pilots and aircraft handlers successfully guiding the supersonic fighter jets onto the flight deck. HMS Queen Elizabeth has been kitted out with specially-designed LED lighting on her flight deck to aid nighttime landings.

Commander James Blackmore is the Commander Air in HMS Queen Elizabeth, who is referred to as simply ‘Wings’ by the ship’s company. “The concept of night flying isn’t difficult for us. What we are looking at is what the new lights onboard HMS Queen Elizabeth look like at night from the perspective of the F-35s,” he said in the Royal Navy press release.

Blackmore continues: “We’ve already done that with the rotary-wing aircraft earlier this year, but now it’s crucial that we understand how suitable they are for the F-35s to operate at night from the carrier. First indications are that they are in good order for both the aided and unaided perspectives.”

The stealth F-35 jets flew from HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time last week. Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray and RAF Squadron Leader Andy Edgell were the first pilots to make history by landing their aircraft on the flight deck of the giant carrier.

Now the flying trials have swiftly moved on to the next phase, including the night-time flying which up until now has only been tested in simulators or on the ground.

Using the night-vision technology doesn’t always make landings easy as even the smallest light becomes ultra-bright when it is viewed through specialist equipment.

The lights on a carrier’s deck can look fine to the naked eye but suddenly become very bright when night-vision is switched on. However, HMS Queen Elizabeth has been installed with specially-designed LED lightning on her flight deck, which solves the issue.

Even still, it is important for pilots to test their ability to land with and without night-vision assistance.

Andrew Maack, the Chief Test Engineer for the Integrated Test Force – the organization responsible for analyzing the flight trials – added: “In the daytime, there are cues that tell the pilot’s brain what the relative motion is between the airplane and the ship.

“At night, especially very dark night, all those cues go away and you become dependent on exactly what the lights are and what the sight of those lights looks like. It’s something you can’t translate in your mind ahead of time – you don’t know it until you see it.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth left her home port of Portsmouth in August, crossing the Atlantic to conduct the flying trials as well as training with the US Navy.

Photo by Crown Copyright, Royal Navy