First Aircraft Recovery for the CVN 79 Advanced Arresting Gear

: Posted On Tuesday, 05 April 2016 11:34

Naval Forces News - USA

First Aircraft Recovery for the CVN 79 Advanced Arresting Gear

The US Navy and General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) completed successfully on March 31 their first aircraft arrestment with the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG). The system, which will be installed on the future John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) aircraft carrier, currently under construction, is integrated on the Pre-Commissioning Unit USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), undergoing trials.

The U.S. Navy’s Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) program reaches a milestone with the first recovery of a manned aircraft, an F/A-18E Super Hornet, March 31 at the Runway Arrested Landing Site (RALS) at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in N.J. U.S. Navy Photo

AAG is a state-of-the-art turbo-electric system, that was designed for controlled and reliable deceleration of aircraft during recovery operations on the fleet’s new class of carriers.

The first successful arrestment took place at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst’s Runway Arrested Landing Site (RALS). A Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet was used to complete the test, which marked a major milestone in proving AAG’s performance and “a step forward bringing this transformational technology into the next phase of testing and optimization”, according to Scott Forney, President of GA-EMS.

Dean Key, Director of Launch and Recovery Production Programmes and AAG Design and Development, said: “More than 1,200 successful dead load arrestments have been completed at the Jet Car Test Site in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Now, with the arrestment of aircraft, we take an important step in verifying the dynamic controls and system performance as a whole. We’re extremely proud of this accomplishment, and are excited to continue down this path of success as the AAG system undergoes additional aircraft arrestment testing, and demonstration activity.”