Trump has made his distaste for the US Navy’s new EMALS carrier launching system clear. Yet the catapults have clear benefits over their steam-powered predecessors, despite reliability issues.
While speaking to service members aboard the United States Navy’s Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) this week, President Donald Trump criticized the US Navy’s use of magnets on warships—praising the Navy’s older and more established steam catapults as an alternative.
“You know, the new thing is magnets. So instead of using hydraulic[s] that can be hit by lightning and it’s fine. You take a little glass of water, you drop it on magnets, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Trump said—suggesting that the Navy’s electromagnets couldn’t function if they get wet.
“So, you know, the elevators come up in the new carriers—I think I’m going to change it, by the way—they have magnets. Every tractor has hydraulic, every excavator, every excavating machine of any kind has hydraulic. But somebody decided to use magnets,” the president added.
Trump Is Not Attracted to Magnets
Trump had been critical of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), developed for the Gerald R. Ford-class of supercarriers, which will replace the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers on a one-to-one basis in the coming decades. During his first term in the White House, the president claimed that EMALS was too complicated, expensive, and unproven, and suggested a return to steam-powered catapults, which are used on CVN-73 and the other nine Nimitz-class flattops.
At issue were delays with USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) due to EMALS issues, which are still being worked out.
“It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated. You have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out,” Trump claimed in 2017, during his first year in office. He further suggested that EMALS cost the Navy “hundreds of millions of dollars more money, and were “no good.”
However, US Navy officials have said that EMALS would save billions of dollars in maintenance costs over the life of the ship. More importantly, by eliminating the need to generate additional steam, EMALS can increase aircraft launch rates, thereby contributing to higher sortie rates.
Current estimates suggest that the EMALS system can achieve 25 percent more launches per day than its older Nimitz-class steam-powered equivalent, while launching a wider range of aircraft, from drones to heavy strike fighters. Moreover, it puts less stress on the aircraft and requires fewer personnel to operate.
That didn’t matter to Trump, who wants future carriers to employ the more mature technology.
“I’m going to sign an executive order. When we build aircraft carriers, it’s steam for the catapults and it’s hydraulic for the elevators. We’ll never have a problem,” Trump said.
China Has Electromagnetic Catapults, Too
Even as Trump has remained critical of electromagnetic catapults, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) demonstrated its version in operations in a short “sizzle reel” released on social media in August. In the video, the conventionally powered Type 003 Fujian was seen launching from the Shenyang J-15T Flying Shark aircraft on the flight deck.
The Type 003 employs an electromagnetic catapult system equipped with a linear induction motor. The PLAN essentially “leapfrogged” the steam-powered system, going from the ski-jump ramps employed on the Type 001 Liaoning and Type 002 Shandong to the EMALS.
There are some notable differences. The United States Navy’s system employs high-voltage alternating current and flywheels for energy storage, whereas the Chinese system utilizes a medium-voltage direct current (MVDC) power system with supercapacitors.
PLAN officials claim its system has a failure rate of less than 0.2 percent, far lower than the US Navy’s EMALS. In addition, as each catapult on the Type 003 has an independent power supply, it could be less susceptible to a cascading failure than that of the Ford-class carriers. However, US experts have said that if the issues with EMALS can be fully resolved, it will be a more efficient system than the steam versions.
It is unclear if Trump will actually issue an executive order, and even if it occurs, it isn’t likely that the existing EMALS on CVN-78, or the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), will be modified to a steam-generated version. The same could be true of the other carriers now under construction.
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu has contributed over 3,200 published pieces to more than four dozen magazines and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].
Image: Shutterstock / Joris van Boven.
