EMALS Back in Business

The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System re-entered full System Functional Demonstration testing today, almost three months after the program's first live aircraft launches uncovered a glitch, according to a Naval Air Systems Command spokesman.

Rob Koon told Inside the Navy today that the “control software issue” was discovered during testing in the run-up to the initial aircraft launches on Dec. 20. Since then, the program has spent two months fiddling with EMALS' software and conducting no-load and dead-load testing to fix the problem.

Koon said the software upgrades will help the catapult manage force transitions between linear motor sections as it shuttles the aircraft down the rail.

Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, mentioned the issue at a congressional hearing last week.

“We did take a pause because . . . while we were working on these changes or corrections coming out of the live aircraft testing, we did not want to have a standing Army on the test side that was performing inefficiently,” Stackley told lawmakers on March 9. “We're coming back with corrections.”