US Navy still trying to figure out exactly why aircraft launch system on $13 billion supercarrier fa

[rangerrebew]

US Navy still trying to figure out exactly why aircraft launch system on $13 billion supercarrier failed
Ryan Pickrell
 

    The aircraft launch system on the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford failed during recent at-sea testing, and the US Navy is still trying to figure out exactly what went wrong.

    A fault in the power handling elements of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) caused it to fail, hindering flight operations until a workaround was developed days later.

    The specific cause of the fault is still unclear though.

    "We're still going through the diagnosis. We're doing full-fault isolation to understand ... what caused the condition to come up in that way," James Geurts, the Navy acquisitions chief, said Thursday, according to Inside Defense.

https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-still-diagnosing-key-tech-on-carrier-ford-failure-cause-2020-6

[rangerrebew]

Because it's NFG?  It seems to me to be a poor idea to test a radical new system on a $13 billion ship is not the best decision ever made.  Right now the Ford is nothing but a floating piece of scrap metal.

[rangerrebew]

Navy Unsure If Recent EMALS Fault Was Equipment or Procedure Problem, But Workaround Has Been Validated
By: Megan Eckstein
June 19, 2020 4:45 PM

 

The Navy still isn’t sure if a recent fault in the aircraft launching system onboard USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) was caused by a problem with the equipment itself or the procedures used to operate it, but the service’s top acquisition official said he’s confident in the system and that any remaining weak points are being wrung out during an ongoing post-delivery test and trials period.

On June 2, the Ford crew discovered a fault in the power handling system that connects the ship’s energy-generating turbines to the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) power system. This discovery came while they were conducting a manual reset of the system ahead of launching aircraft, while the air wing was onboard for the first time ever to conduct cyclic operations – compared to previous at-sea periods where test pilots were flying in a controlled test environment.

https://news.usni.org/2020/06/19/navy-unsure-if-recent-emals-fault-was-equipment-or-procedure-problem-but-workaround-has-been-validated

[rangerrebew]

What good is the system if they don't have ordnance elevators to move weapons from and to the flight deck?