U.S. Navy Touts EMALS Reliability As It Starts White House Steam Study

The U.S. Navy is publicly defending the reliability record of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System as a White House-directed study examines returning to steam catapults on future carriers. EMALS has logged improved mean cycles between operational mission failure rates on USS Gerald R. Ford and its successors. The study will compare life-cycle costs, reliability, and capability trade-offs between the two launch technologies. The outcome may affect catapult selection for CVN-82 and subsequent Ford-class vessels.