Gerald R. Ford Class Nuclear Aircraft Carrier (CVN 78 - 80)

Mission — GERALD R FORD CI NUC AIRCRAFT CARRIER CVN 78-80 source

This Navy program addresses unique technologies on Ford Class carriers. The program includes: - (2208) - Development of ship hull, mechanical, propulsion, electrical, aviation, and combat support systems, subsystems and components to significantly improve aircraft carrier affordability, manpower requirements, survivability, and operational capabilities, and to meet the requirements of existing and pending regulations and statutes critical to the operation of existing and future aircraft carriers. - (4004) - The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) is an advanced technology system developed as part of, and integrated on new FORD Class Carrier ships, beginning with CVN78. EMALS provides better control of applied forces, both peak and transient dynamic loads, improved reliability and maintainability, increased operational availability, and reduced operator and maintainer workload. The EMALS program will undergo future system improvements to address safety, obsolescence, and reliability. This Program Element (PE) and associated projects represent a continuation of efforts previously funded under PE 0603512N projects 2208 and 4004 in FY 2014 and earlier and PE 0604567N projects 3179, 3180, and 4007 in FY 2023 and earlier.

Mission — CVN 21 source

This project provides the development of aircraft carrier specific technologies, the infusion of the ship technology base into existing and future aircraft carriers, and the potential realization of subsystem design capabilities not currently feasible. All systems developed in this project support current or emerging requirements and other promising systems technologies for insertion into existing and new aircraft carrier designs. The emphasis is directed toward developing ship hull, mechanical, propulsion, electrical, aviation, and warfare systems to significantly improve aircraft carrier affordability, manpower requirements, survivability, and operational capabilities required to meet existing and pending regulations and statutes critical to the operation of future aircraft carriers. This project also encompasses those tasks required to support CVN 78 Class procurement, including, but not limited to engineering support, programmatic and program support, logistics support, modeling and simulation, test and evaluation, manpower and program related studies, and design support systems, such as the Integrated Digital Environment (IDE).

Mission — EMALS source

The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) is an advanced technology system developed as part of, and integrated on new FORD Class Carrier ships, beginning with CVN 78. EMALS provides better control of applied forces, both peak and transient dynamic loads, improved reliability and maintainability, increased operational availability, and reduced operator and maintainer workload. The EMALS program will undergo future system improvements to address safety, obsolescence, and reliability, to include but not limited to Automated software testing, Electrical Isolation, Advancing Additive at Large Scale to Address Readiness and Sustainment (AALSTARS), Block Switch Controller (BSC) Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), Software Support Activity (SSA), Autosuspends, Maintenance Laptop, Catapult Status Dashboard (CSD), and other emergent requirements. Automated software testing development provides for rapid, repeatable tests, resulting in higher quality software. Automated testing enables rapid diagnosis of system faults and decrease troubleshooting response time for the fleet. EMALS is a software intensive system and highly dependent on reliable software operation. The readiness and mission benefits include the ability to provide the fleet with affordable, quality, well-tested software capable of launching and recovering aircraft on Ford-Class carriers. Development of Electrical Isolation provides for EMALS capabilities to continue launch operations while being able to isolate catapults for regular maintenance, in turn improving maintenance cycle times. This provides readiness and mission benefits to enable continued operations and increases system mission capability. Implementing the AALSTARS initiative will demonstrate alternative manufacturing methods of select EMALS components. This will reduce manufacturing lead time and costs for highly complex, long lead time items. Developing BSC CPLD provides additional space on a critical control card to allow for future firmware and logic updates in order to ensure timely functionality and to support future changes. This also addresses a known obsolescence issue. Software Support Activity (SSA) development provides a high-level hybrid SSA planning document (Software Test Plan) to ensure software test activities are developed and implemented. In addition, the hybrid SSA will execute software investigations, Correction of Deficiencies, and the EMALS SSA lab design and upgrade plan in support of future EMALS systems improvements. Autosuspends effort is to develop software improvements for several key EMALS Computer Software Configuration Items (CSCIs) that will mitigate the EMALS Autosuspends associated with faults and communication dropouts, which terminates the launch process and causes delays to launch operations. These software improvements will significantly lessen the number of experienced Autosuspends and improve CVN launch operations in order to meet the operational need. Development of a software maintenance laptop provides organizational level support of EMALS software. The current procedure requires onboard engineering support in order to reduce troubleshooting and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR). Catapult Status Dashboard (CSD) development will provide enhanced user situational awareness, improving EMALS operational efficiency. The current EMALS primary operational station equipment, the Maintenance Workstation (MWS), was developed only for maintenance and does not adequately support user awareness of EMALS launch operations.

Accomplishments & Planned Programs (5)