General Atomics, a defense contractor in San Diego, Calif., announced it will produce the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) for the John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier under a contract from the U.S. Navy.
The EMALS system uses bursts of electromagnetic energy to launch planes and jets into the air. It takes up less space on ships, charges faster and requires less maintenance than other systems.
“General Atomics is proud to be delivering this transformational technology to the Unites States Navy, now on the second ship in the Ford-class aircraft carrier, the John F. Kennedy (CVN 79). This is a great opportunity and GA has a great team assembled whose talents developing a first-of-kind system on the CVN 78 will allow us to pay that expertise forward for the CVN 79,” Dean Key, the director of Launch and Recovery Production Programs at GA’s Electromagnetic Systems Group, said.
General Atomics plans to begin production in 2017 at the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Newport News, Va.
