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i 

52–945 2010

[H.A.S.C. No. 111–83] 

OVERSIGHT OF THE ELECTROMAGNETIC 

AIRCRAFT LAUNCH SYSTEM (EMALS) 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SEAPOWER AND EXPEDITIONARY FORCES 

SUBCOMMITTEE 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

HEARING HELD 

JULY 16, 2009 
(II) 

SEAPOWER AND EXPEDITIONARY FORCES SUBCOMMITTEE 

GENE TAYLOR, Mississippi, Chairman 

SOLOMON P. ORTIZ, Texas 

JAMES R. LANGEVIN, Rhode Island 

RICK LARSEN, Washington 

BRAD ELLSWORTH, Indiana 

JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut 

JOE SESTAK, Pennsylvania 

GLENN NYE, Virginia 

CHELLIE PINGREE, Maine 

ERIC J.J. MASSA, New York 

W. TODD AKIN, Missouri 

ROB WITTMAN, Virginia 

ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland 

J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia 

DUNCAN HUNTER, California 

MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado 

THOMAS J. ROONEY, Florida 

WILL EBBS, Professional Staff Member 

JENNESS SIMLER, Professional Staff Member 

ELIZABETH DRUMMOND, Staff Assistant 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF HEARINGS 

2009 

Page 

HEARING: 

Thursday, July 16, 2009, Oversight of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch 

System (EMALS) .................................................................................................. 1 

APPENDIX: 

Thursday, July 16, 2009 .......................................................................................... 33 

THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2009 

OVERSIGHT OF THE ELECTROMAGNETIC AIRCRAFT LAUNCH 

SYSTEM (EMALS) 

STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS 

Akin, Hon. W. Todd, a Representative from Missouri, Ranking Member, 

Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee .......................................... 3 

Taylor, Hon. Gene, a Representative from Mississippi, Chairman, Seapower 

and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee ........................................................... 1 

WITNESSES 

Antonio, Capt. Brian, USN, Program Manager for Future Aircraft Carriers, 

U.S. Navy .............................................................................................................. 7 

Architzel, Vice Adm. David, USN, Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant 

Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development, and Acquisition), U.S. 

Navy ...................................................................................................................... 3 

Mahr, Capt. Randy, USN, Program Manager for Aircraft Launching and 

Recovery Equipment (ALRE), U.S. Navy ........................................................... 7 

APPENDIX 

PREPARED STATEMENTS: 

Akin, Hon. W. Todd .......................................................................................... 39 

Architzel, Vice Adm. David, joint with Capt. Randy Mahr and Capt. 

Brian Antonio ................................................................................................ 40 

Taylor, Hon. Gene ............................................................................................. 37 

DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD: 

[There were no Documents submitted.] 

WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING THE HEARING: 

Mr. Taylor ......................................................................................................... 53 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING: 

Mr. Taylor ......................................................................................................... 57 

(1) 

OVERSIGHT OF THE ELECTROMAGNETIC AIRCRAFT 

LAUNCH SYSTEM (EMALS) 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, SEAPOWER AND EXPEDITIONARY FORCES SUBCOMMITTEE, Washington, DC, Thursday, July 16, 2009. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m., in room 

2212, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Gene Taylor (chairman 

of the subcommittee) presiding. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GENE TAYLOR, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM MISSISSIPPI, CHAIRMAN, SEAPOWER AND EXPEDITIONARY FORCES SUBCOMMITTEE 

Mr. TAYLOR. The subcommittee will come to order. Today the 

subcommittee meets in open session to receive testimony from officials of the United States Navy on the current status of the electromagnetic aircraft launch system, or EMALS. The EMALS system 

is an electromagnetic catapult designed to use on the Ford class 

aircraft carriers. If the system delivers its full promised capability, 

Ford class carriers will have a catapult system that is far superior 

to the steam catapults of the Nimitz class. 

The operational advantages are increased launch envelopes—that 

is the ability to launch both heavier and lighter aircraft than steam 

catapults—higher sortie rates, reduced weight, reduced mechanical 

complexity, reduced maintenance and reduce carrier manning. Unfortunately, what brings us together today is that the development 

of the program is so far behind schedule that it threatens the delivery date of the United States Ford. For the record, I would like to briefly summarize the history of 

the program and the current status. EMALS was the core capability in the design of the next generation aircraft carrier, which 

the Navy called CVN–21 for the 21st century technology, which 

eventually became the USS Ford, CVN–78. 

In 1999, the Navy entered into technological demonstration contracts with two different contractors, General Atomics and Northrop Grumman Marine Systems, to develop prototypes for the 

electromagnetic catapult. By 2004, the Navy down-selected to a 

system proposed by General Atomics and entered into a system design and development contract, or SDD contract, to build a fullscale ship representative prototype at the Navy test facility at 

Lakehurst, New Jersey. 

That prototype was contracted to be completed in time for testing 

to begin in 2007. Testing was to have concluded up to two years. 

And presumably the results learned from the test program would 

influence the final production system, which would be shipped to 
2 

the carrier construction yard for erection into the ship. It is now 

July of 2009, and full-scale testing is yet to begin at the Lakehurst 

facility. 

The Navy is now faced with almost complete concurrency of testing and production of the first ship set if they are to meet the inyard delivery dates to keep the USS Ford on schedule. There are 

a number of subsystems in the complete EMALS system. And each 

subsystem has different in-yard delivery dates. But some of those 

dates are as early as the summer of 2011. And to meet those dates, 

the production of the components, and at least the ordering of the 

material for the components, must begin now before full-scale testing of the prototype systems has begun. 

To be fair, some testing has already occurred. The high-cycle 

tests for energy source systems is well underway, as is the highly 

accelerated life cycle testing of the launch motor segments. Those 

tests have identified some minor redesign issues, which can be incorporated into the production components. But until a full-scale 

catapult launch of the prototype occurs, questions will remain on 

the system’s overall performance. 

I have been briefed, as I believe other members of this subcommittee have been briefed, that the issues in completing and delivering the SDD components were a result of the contractor’s inexperience managing a major production effort. I find that answer 

unsettling because it is the Navy’s responsibility to oversee what 

their contractors are doing and to identify problems before they become problems. 

I will note that a little over a year-and-a-half ago, the contractor 

did put in place an entirely new management and engineering 

team. Hiring away proven production engineers from both General 

Dynamics and Northrop Grumman. This new team seems to have 

righted the ship. But that ship is still on very dangerous seas. 

So what we have is a program that is so essential to the carrier 

that if it does not work, the nation has paid billions of dollars for 

an unusable ship. If the ship is delayed, the carrier is automatically delayed. I am sorry. And every day of delay will push the 

costs higher for the carrier. 

This is the first in what I intend to be a series of hearings on 

this program over the next few years. This is too important not to 

have close congressional oversight. I intend to continue close oversight of this program until it is delivered, installed, tested, certified 

for launching EMALS aircraft off the deck of the USS Ford. 

I would also like to remind you gentlemen that when Chairman 

Bartlett was the chairman of this committee and I was the ranking 

member, on any number of occasions representatives from the 

Navy visited him and me and said the littoral combat ship system 

was on time and on schedule and on cost only to have some time 

around November of 2006 one of those, ‘‘aw, shucks,’’ moments that 

has resulted in a ship that is well over twice the price it should 

be and 18 months late on each version. We cannot afford that on 

this program. 

And I do welcome you here today. And I do welcome you taking 

these responsible jobs and hopefully seeing to it that this program 

is back on track. 
3 

Our witnesses today are Vice Admiral David Architzel, principal 

deputy to the Assistant Secretary Stackley; Rear Admiral (Select) 

Randy Mahr, program manager for EMALS; and Captain Brian 

Antonio, program manager for the Ford class aircraft carrier. Vice 

Admiral Architzel is representing the assistant secretary as the 

senior acquisition executive who is ultimately responsible for all 

Navy and Marine Corps acquisition programs. Admiral (Select) 

Mahr is the official whose only responsibility will be this program. 

Captain Antonio is responsible for building the entire carrier. He 

obviously has an interest in the success of EMALS. 

This year’s National Defense Authorization Act directs the Secretary of the Navy to keep Admiral (Select) Mahr in his position 

until the completion of the system development testing and the 

successful production of the first ship’s set of components. That 

means that the admiral select who has been selected will be in 

place for a number of years and will have the opportunity to visit 

again on this subject. 

I would now like to call on my friend from Missouri, the ranking 

member of the subcommittee, the Honorable Todd Akin, for any 

opening remarks he may wish to make. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Taylor can be found in the Appendix on page 37.] 

STATEMENT OF HON. W. TODD AKIN, A REPRESENTATIVE 

FROM MISSOURI, RANKING MEMBER, SEAPOWER AND EXPEDITIONARY FORCES SUBCOMMITTEE 

Mr. AKIN. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would just like to 

submit my remarks for the record, if I could and welcome our witnesses. My background was in engineering. And I used to work for 

IBM. We did a lot of project management. 

This is something that really has the attention, not only of our 

subcommittee and committee, but the Chief of Naval Operations, 

everybody else. This has got to work. And this is an important 

hearing. I am looking forward to having a chance to ask some questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Akin can be found in the Appendix on page 39.] 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Mr. Akin. 

Vice Admiral Architzel, I understand that you will deliver the 

combined opening statement. I also understand that you have a 

short movie that will demonstrate how the EMALS system would 

work on the ship. Please proceed. 

STATEMENT OF VICE ADM. DAVID ARCHITZEL, USN, PRINCIPAL MILITARY DEPUTY TO THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY 

OF THE NAVY (RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND ACQUISITION), U.S. NAVY 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Thank you, Chairman Taylor, Ranking 

Member Akin, and distinguished members of the committee. It is 

our honor to be to appear before you today to report on the development of the electromagnetic aircraft launching system, EMALS for 

the Gerald R. Ford CVN–78 class aircraft carriers and the Navy’s 

plan for this effort. 
4 

I am joined by Captain Randy Mahr, the program manager for 

aircraft launch and recovery equipment to my right and Captain 

Brian Antonio, the program manager for the CVN–78 aircraft carrier program to my left. I would like to submit our written statement for the record. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Without objection. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Thank you, sir. As today’s tactical aircraft 

have evolved, the percentage of high-energy launches for the embarked airwing has steadily increased as has the attendant stress 

applied to those aircraft from today’s steam catapult system. Likewise, with the higher loads required, the maintenance man-ours to 

maintain our carrier catapults has increased. 

The Navy recognized these trends and sought to replace steam 

catapults on the Ford class aircraft carriers with EMALS, electromagnetic aircraft launching systems, a system that is designed to 

reduce manual requirements, increased operational availability and 

give greater performance over legacy steam systems. Similarly, 

EMALS supports the CVN–78 key performance parameters such as 

sortie generation rate, reduced shipboard manning and will support 

current and future airwing operation requirements, which include 

the addition of the joint strike fighter and Navy Unmanned Combat Air System, or N–UCAS, in the future. 

EMALS is a critically important capability for our future carriers 

and embarked airwings. During its development over the past year, 

we have made good progress. But as you are aware and have pointed out, we have also had to overcome technical issues, programmatic challenges and cost growth. 

I want to leave this committee with two important takeaways. 

First, we are here today to provide you with the most up-to-date, 

straightforward answers as possible. And if we don’t have answers 

to your questions, we will get them. Second, that the team—and 

that is the collective team on the government’s side and industry 

side—is committed to delivering this capability with our principal 

industry partners, General Atomics and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. 

We are working hard with our industry partners in this critical 

program. And while we are making progress, concerns remain. And 

we will no doubt have additional challenges during the remaining 

test program. 

We are collectively committed to meeting those challenges headon. The Navy understands the concerns you and your subcommittee have expressed. And we are aggressively working to improve performance. 

Chairman Taylor, we are implementing your recommendations to 

break EMALS’ cost and performance data from CVN–78 for a separate review by Congress. 

Finally, I feel that we have two of the finest program managers 

to lead both the EMALS program and the CVN–78 program with 

us today. And we are taking steps to ensure stability in the program’s key technical and management teams. The department is 

committed to delivering CVN–78 with EMALS on time and on 

budget. 

Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I would now like to provide 

the committee with a brief presentation on what constitutes a cata-
5 

pult launch, as was requested, with the goal of touching on some 

of the major components of the EMALS system. And following that, 

I would like to hand over the presentation to Captain Mahr, who 

will provide greater detail on the program as well as the components involved and its testing underway. 

Finally, Captain Antonio will explain how EMALS is integrated 

into the Ford class aircraft carrier and how he is tracking progress 

to ensure the proper and timely integration of the EMALS system 

into CVN–78. At the conclusion of our presentation, our brief presentations, we will stand ready to answer any and all questions, sir. 

[The joint prepared statement of Admiral Architzel, Captain 

Mahr, and Captain Antonio can be found in the Appendix on page 

40.] 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Admiral. If you would, please. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Today’s carriers in the fleet, the Enterprise 

and the 10 Nimitz class carriers, the catapult launches are accomplished through steam systems. Steam is stored, if you will, in wet 

accumulators. For the stored energy in the case of steam catapults 

is the steam system. And it is stored in wet accumulators where 

you have steam pressure available to launch aircraft. 

When we commence a launch sequence, the aircraft is taxied to 

the catapult. A launch bar on the nose gear of the aircraft—we generally use all launched nose gear tow today—is extended, which 

locks itself onto the catapult on the above-deck space on the flight 

decks itself. Below decks, as you see, are ready to go, the airplane 

is brought to full power. It is being held by a trail bar. 

And at that point—if you would hold the video, I do appreciate 

it. Thank you. If I could just for a second explain what steam is 

first—and held in place by a trail bar. Full power is applied. And 

when the deck edge operator touches the deck to launch the airplane, steam is released to the pistons below deck, which are accelerated and connecting to the shuttler, which is on the airplane— 

accelerate the airplane through about a 360-foot power stroke to 

reach the end speed required for that airplane based on its type 

model series, required wind speed, wind over deck and conditions 

that exist on that day. 

Once the airplane is airborne, the shuttle—this catapult and the 

piston below decks is stopped physically mechanically by a water 

brake system. A spear on the front of the piston enters the water— 

physically enters a tank of water about 15 feet long. And the energy is absorbed in that water brake from the launch with the— 

to stop the piston. That piston is then retracted mechanically to set 

for another launch. 

So, in essence, that is the steam system today. What is different 

about EMALS would be the—well, different and several similarities. But the biggest one would start with the concept of stored energy now is electromagnetic energy that is stored in the system. So 

power is drawn from the ship’s electrical distribution system and 

stored in electrical storage units, of which there will be 12 on the 

Ford class. And that energy is available for the launch. 

The aircraft positioning on the catapult is the same as on steam 

catapults. But once you get ready to launch and the deck edge operator touches the deck to launch, that stored energy, electrical energy is translated through a power conditioning system to the lin-
6 

ear motors that run the length of the catapult, that 360-foot power 

stroke. And a moving magnetic wave is in—is passed through the 

stators, which is the linear motors. 

In between those linear motors is a block of aluminum, represented by what I have in my hand. And on top of that, which is 

now the armature, is the shuttle I talked about, which attaches to 

the airplane. And as that moving magnetic wave, which is represented by this magnet, passes—this is nonferrous, so it is aluminum and a magnet—that magnetic field goes along. 

It induces the current into the armature. The armature generates its own magnetic field. The magnetic fields are latched together, and it pulls down the track. If I put this on my desk and 

just physically move the magnet over the aluminum, you can see 

that I can stop or start this slide of aluminum right in my hand. 

That is the fundamental principle behind what is the electromagnetic launch system. 

When the airplane reaches the end of the stroke and that energy 

is provided again to—significant power, more power than the steam 

catapults can provide—when it reaches the end, the block of aluminum now, which is the armature, is stopped electrically as well. 

There is no need for water brakes. It is stopped 

electromechanically, if you will, just by changing the frequencies 

induced into that field. 

And then you can retract the shuttle without having to have a 

retraction engine and the mechanics that go with that. So there is 

several advantages to the system that go in with the EMALS. And 

you end up with more uniform acceleration, positive speed control 

throughout the length of the catapult stroke, elimination of the 

labor-intensive systems, far less wear and tear on the aircraft and 

the ship. And that is the goal behind the fundamentals behind the 

EMALS system. 

The video you are going to see now is essentially—if you would 

run that, please—describes what I just went through and discussed 

in terms of understanding what a catapult launch is. So thank you. 

[Begin video.] 

The first part is positioning the aircraft on the catapult. It is just 

taxiing forward. And as is the case with any topside changes, really 

insignificant the—that portion of it is the same, whether you go 

from EMALS or steam systems today—in the Jet Blast Deflector 

(JBD) positions itself on the catapult. 

You can see the storage device represented there below with the 

energy storage. Aircraft is on the catapult. The next step would be 

to—and it describes the major subsystems that go with launching 

as I described them—power conditioning, launch system, launch 

control and launch motor, as mentioned. 

The aircraft comes forward, the launch part comes down. JBD 

comes up, applies full power to the airplane. And as then you take 

the moving magnetic field as the induced on the motors, the airplane is shot off. And you would then retract and continue with the 

second launch. 

[End video.] 

That is the fundamentals behind the launch sequencing. And I 

will turn it over to Captain Mahr for a description of the EMALS 

system in more detail. 
7 

STATEMENT OF CAPT. RANDY MAHR, USN, PROGRAM MANAGER FOR AIRCRAFT LAUNCHING AND RECOVERY EQUIPMENT (ALRE), U.S. NAVY 

Captain MAHR. Sir, with your permission, I will stand and point 

to the board, sir. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Please, sir. 

Captain MAHR. Mr. Chairman. (OFF MIKE) 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Admiral. 

[The joint prepared statement of Captain Mahr, Admiral 

Architzel, and Captain Antonio can be found in the Appendix on 

page 40.] 

Mr. TAYLOR. Captain. 

STATEMENT OF CAPT. BRIAN ANTONIO, USN, PROGRAM 

MANAGER FOR FUTURE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS, U.S. NAVY 

Captain ANTONIO. Good morning, Chairman Taylor, Ranking 

Member Akin, distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank 

you for the opportunity for me to talk about the—my exciting program. It is certainly a great time to be a part of it. 

Mr. Chairman, as you mentioned in your opening statement—in 

your statement, I am very interested in EMALS’s development as 

I am, of course, of all the other developmental systems that are 

going onboard CVN–78 and the 21 class. With your permission, sir, 

I also have a couple slides that I would like to speak to. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Please, sir. 

Captain ANTONIO. First and foremost, ship construction for 78 is 

on track. And that construction is being supported by the design, 

including the 3–D product model. This is the first aircraft carrier 

that will be completely designed three dimensionally. That 3–D 

product model is 96 percent complete. And the chart that I am 

showing here is a shot from a 3–D—the completion of initial construction drawings for the ship stands at 41 percent, about 6,600 

of 16,000 construction drawings. And those construction drawings 

are the product of the 3–D product model. 

The drawings are completed ahead of construction—so the design 

is complete. The construction drawings are completed prior to beginning any of the construction on the ship. And those are—in 

order to take advantage of any—work done in the yard. 

The congressional approved advanced construction we received— 

advanced construction authority we received for CVN–78 allowed 

us to get a running start into the advanced construction for the 

ship. And, in fact, since the time of contract award in September 

of 2008, we had about 300 of the whole units of the total number 

of about 1,204 structural units completed. And for those of you that 

are not familiar, the structural unit is similar to some of the building blocks you see depicted in this chart—for a different purpose. 

But the building blocks of the structural unit are depicted there. 

For CVN–78 those units, structural units are built—there is 

some initial outfitting and some load-out of equipment into those 

units, especially large equipment. Some of them are combined to 

form super lifts. Some of them come out of shop as first and final 

and are loaded into the dock to build the ship. 

On CVN–78 there is a total of 497 erectable lifts that will go in 

and make up the Gerald R. Ford. Once in the dock, additional out-
8 

fitting and meeting with other units occurs until the ship is capable of being launched from the dock. And then—make sure the ship 

itself—the ship works. 

As of today, the total number of 1,204 modules—the shipyard has 

begun work on 571 of those modules and has completed 450, or 

about one-third. About one-third of the ship in terms of structural 

fabrication is complete—and it allows us to prove out—that was 

brought online by the shipbuilder in order to support CVN–78. This 

ship is coming together incredibly well. And by any of the—to make 

a visit to the shipyard. I would be more than happy to help arrange 

for a tour. But every time I go down, I see more progress. And it 

is incredibly impressive to see—coming together. 

Our next construction model—that is when we join the first units 

that are placed in the dock—join them together in the dry dock. 

And that is on track for mid-November of 2009, so only a few 

months away—I will get into a little bit about EMALS integration—my boss, Rear Admiral McMahon, the—for aircraft carriers 

and I visited Northrop Grumman shipbuilding and reviewed the 

EMALS integration and construction plan with the shipbuilder, including being able to don some 3–D glasses and virtually walk in 

some of the places where some of the arrangements are ongoing for 

EMALS—— 

From the construction perspective, the key EMALS activity that 

is important to get us to launch, which is currently scheduled in 

2013, July of 2013, is going to be delivery of the motor generator 

unit. You have heard the admiral mention the energy storage system—with the motor generators. These are the 40-ton units that 

Captain Mahr showed earlier. 

As I mentioned—and in particular, the first 8 of 12. And what 

I have got shown on this particular chart—and you have it on your 

desk as well—is two—these super lifts, as you see, depict the relative location of the first eight. There will be four loaded into each 

of these—— 

The ship is built completely different from the way a house is 

built. A house is framed and then items are brought into the 

house—the way a ship is built is they—around the dock or—early 

as possible in the construction sequence to do as much work as possible because it is the most efficient and least costly way to build 

a ship. 

In the case of the motor generators, these are very large pieces 

of equipment. And to try to load them after we have built the 

whole ship would mean—very inefficient movement pattern 

throughout the ship. 

And next is depicted as far as the load-out of the motor generators. What I show here is the orientation of the first four EMALS— 

generators loaded into the super lift that will form that wall unit 

that you saw in the previous chart. 

The shipyard will receive the motor generators, do some preparatory work for it, bring it down to the unit, load it in—will be 

loaded out with the equipment that needs to be put in—put on. 

And then it will be loaded into the shop. 

This shows how the—after ship’s launch from July 2013 to ship 

delivery in September of 2015, the—delivery of the ship is going to 

be—linear motor subsystem. Installation of that linear motor sub-
9 

system in the catapult across on the ship and then the integrated 

testing of the entire EMALS system on the ship leading to— 

launching to show that the system works. 

So again, recapsulating—before launch I am looking to the motor 

generator—after ship’s launch—ship’s loading I am looking at delivery of the linear motor subsystem. These are the two subsystems 

for the EMALS production—that have the least amount of schedule 

float, least amount of slack, if you will, between the time they are 

delivered—between the time of construction completed to the time 

of delivery—to the shipyard. 

With that said, the current production integrated IMX—integrated—for EMALS support CVN–78 on time delivery. All required—are met. The amount of oversight that is in place—mentioned the—Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) oversight— 

continue to manage and be in place to make sure that EMALS is 

delivered—CVN–78. And we are ready to do that—that is all I 

have. 

[The joint prepared statement of Captain Antonio, Admiral 

Architzel, and Captain Mahr can be found in the Appendix on page 

40.] 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, sir. 

We are going to go—we are very fortunate to have a physicist, 

an engineer, a retired Navy captain, and you and me. So we are 

going to turn to our engineer to start the line of questioning. 

Mr. AKIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Captain, this whole area of project management has been something that our committee has been paying attention to. We have 

made some mistakes in other kinds of projects. One of the things 

that concerned us particularly was changing project managers all 

the way down the line. You change your horse not once in a battle, 

but four or five times. And that doesn’t work very well. 

And partly at the insistence of this committee, but perhaps for 

other people, too, you were the unfortunate person that was singled 

out because you have made a good reputation for yourself to be 

chained to this project for a certain period of time. And I think the 

first and the most important principle that I am curious about is 

do you feel you have the authority to basically manage this project 

and be in control of that? Obviously, a lot of that time schedule is 

not in your control. There is other vendors and different people. 

But our concern is that there is one person that we are looking 

at that we are counting on, particularly to bring EMALS in. But 

I gather your responsibility is for the entire ship. First of all, is 

your responsibility the ship? 

Captain ANTONIO. Yes, sir. My particular role is the CVN–78 

program manager. My responsibility is for the entire ship working 

with the shipbuilder, Northrop Grumman shipbuilding down in 

Newport News. Captain Mahr is the EMALS program manager responsible for—— 

Mr. AKIN. So you have the whole ship, and Captain Mahr has got 

specifically the EMALS? Okay. And you are going to be around 

long enough to stay on top of this? Okay. 

Because that is our concern. We have seen other places where everything is fine, everything is fine, everything is—we are double 
10 

over budget and two years late or whatever it is. That is the kind 

of thing that we can’t afford on this project. 

Now, the EMALS itself, I think, is what the subject of our hearing is. And it is particularly because you are saying it is critical 

path to bring the project on time. 

First of all, you have got something that you called storage units 

which are motor generators. How do you consider a motor generator to be a storage unit? 

Captain MAHR. Sir, through the rotation of the motor generator 

maintains roughly 4,000 revolutions per minute (RPM). That is 

holding the electric kinetic energy, if you will. 

Mr. AKIN. So you get big flywheels in these suckers? Is that what 

you are saying? 

Captain MAHR. It is an electric flywheel, but, yes, sir. It is a very 

good analogy. 

Mr. AKIN. But where is the electric energy stored? 

Captain MAHR. It is in the generator itself. So the generator is 

holding the energy. It is maintaining 4,000 RPM. When a command 

discharge, the energy is commanded out of the motor—or drawn 

out of that generator. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. I have just been told it is a high-mass rotor. In 

other words, it is like a flywheel? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. It is—— 

Mr. AKIN. When you pull the trigger to launch, the motor generator loses its velocity? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. It draws down some of that energy and 

immediately starts trying to command it back up to speed. So as 

soon as I command launch, we are trying to drive energy back in 

to keep it at the max RPM. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. Now, the electrical energy that you are getting 

originally is coming from the ship’s generators? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. And that is in the form of alternating current (AC) or 

direct current (DC) ? 

Captain MAHR. AC, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. AC power? It is going to a motor, which is an AC 

motor. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Which is then going to go to a generator, which is a 

DC generator? Is it a modified AC? 

Captain MAHR. You are talking about the motor generator itself? 

Mr. AKIN. Right. The motor is an AC motor—— 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. We transmit the energy via DC for lower 

line law. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay, so you have AC power coming from the ship’s 

generator. 

Captain MAHR. (OFF MIKE) 

Mr. AKIN. It goes to the motor. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. The motor is an AC motor. It is spinning at 4,000 

RPM. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Driving a generator, which is a DC generator. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 
11 

Mr. AKIN. The DC generator then is connected through a series 

of cables to the actual track. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. And you call them motors, which are really linear motors on each side of the aluminum block is going to run down these 

things? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. Now, when the process of putting this project 

together there is certain—obviously, there is new technology. The 

whole thing is new. And so, whenever you do something new, you 

are worried about bugs. So how much have you actually tested of 

this entire system? Have you actually put these motor generator 

full scale together and taken aluminum block and done this? Or is 

this all being done just modeled? Or do we actually have one that 

we have built? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. In the program definition and risk reduction (PDRR) phase, the competitive phase where we looked at 

both competitors we built a full-scale, half-length prototype, which 

was—which included—— 

Mr. AKIN. A full-scale, half-length? 

Captain MAHR. Full scale, but half-length. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay, so—— 

Captain MAHR. That went to the catapult track. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. 

Captain MAHR. And that was built up at—— 

Mr. AKIN. So the amount of energy that you are transmitting and 

the amount of force and everything is full scale? It is just it is not 

running as long as the—okay. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. We demonstrated the ability to launch 

at bedload, which is a non-manned—it is an unmanned aerial aircraft, but it is something on wheels up to the speed of 150. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. And so, that is going through. Were there any 

surprises and things we learned in that, or not particularly? 

Captain MAHR. From the physics point of view, no, sir. From the 

engineering point of view, we did learn some things. We took what 

we learned there and put it into the system we are now developing. 

So from 2004 until now it has been maturing that system into a 

ship-ready system. And we have—— 

Mr. AKIN. Well, there have been some problems on it. Is that 

right? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. What exactly were the problems? It is much more expensive now. General Atomics did us a favor and charged a whole 

lot more, right, because some things happened that made it more 

expensive? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Where did we get off the track to start with? 

Captain MAHR. From an engineering perspective, we have found 

a lot of things. We have tested the—we have completed one main 

phase of test, and we are in the process of finishing the next two 

main phases of test. The motor generator, as we have been talking 

about—— 

Mr. AKIN. So the first test was you took motor generators, the 

right size, and you demonstrated it half-length? 
12 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. And that is done. Was that the first phase? 

Captain MAHR. That was done in 2004 in the—under the current 

contract for development, we took—we built a full motor generator 

that we intended the production representative of what we put on 

the ship. We put that in Tupelo, Mississippi, at General Atomics 

plant. And we ran that over a simulated 2,000-year output life. 

So it is what we call 10,000 launch cycles on that. And we completed that last September. And we proved that the motor generator itself is capable of putting out the appropriate amount of 

power over 10,000 times. 

That same motor generator then we went into what we call—that 

was high-cycle test, phase one. We are now in high-cycle test, 

phase two. We are not quite 80 percent through that. For the same 

motor generator I have accumulated about another 10,000 cycles on 

that one. And this time we have taken the motor generator. We 

have added all of the other components up to, but not including the 

linear motor. And so, I am putting the electronic components and 

running power through those. 

In those two tests we found out things about the motor generator. We found that the vent—it vented oil mist into the air. And 

so, we had to put a demister on it. We found out that there were 

some oil leaks that we had to deal with. From a performance perspective, the only significant thing we found was that the motor 

generator shaft vibrated. It was the design point that we thought 

we would—or the operating point we had designed for was to have 

that—have a stable operating condition of 4,200 RPM. 

We encountered there are critical points—as you are aware, 

there is critical points in any rotor where you will see some vibration. We wound up seeing one above 4,200 RPM, and then we started seeing some vibration near 4,200 RPM. 

We identified the root cause of that to be associated with the 

bearing cooling where the main shaft bearing. It is an overhung 

mass on the bearing. It is cantilevered out. We changed the bearing 

to what we call a fore load bearing to provide additional cooling oil 

over the shaft. And the vibration was taken care of. 

We have now retrofitted the four motor generators that are built 

and installed up in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Three of those are currently retrofitted. The last one will be retrofitted shortly. And that 

will be the configuration that we will take to the ship. 

Mr. AKIN. Is that what cost us the extra money, was a different 

bearing design and different cooling in the bearing? 

Captain MAHR. That did increase the cost of the unit a little bit. 

But it wasn’t the cost—the cause of the overrun that got us to 

where we are today. The cause of the overrun where we got to 

today, sir, is—do you want me to go down that? 

Mr. AKIN. Just quickly. 

Captain MAHR. Okay. Real quickly, we planned a test schedule 

that was aggressive and optimistic. We were unable to execute that 

test schedule. The cost of materials went up to build some of the 

equipment. So that cost us. 

Mr. AKIN. Was it on the motor generator? Is that what was—— 

Captain MAHR. Part of it was on the motor generator. But we use 

a fair amount of raw materials throughout the unit, so they spread 
13 

that across everything. And then the labor. We identified that General Atomics and their—specifically and their industry partners 

needed about another 80 work years of engineering staffing. So we 

had to plus that up as well as we found the same thing on the— 

Navy needed additional—— 

Mr. AKIN. So what are you concerned about now? 

Captain MAHR. What keeps me awake at night, that kind of a 

question? 

Mr. AKIN. Yes, how do you make sure we are staying on schedule? What are the key things you are really watching? And do you 

have the authority that you need to make sure—do you know this 

is your project? And do you feel like you own this thing? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. And you going to be with it? 

Captain MAHR. I have full responsibility for the EMALS system. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. 

Captain MAHR. If you are looking for that one belly button, that 

belly button is me. 

Mr. TAYLOR. If the gentleman would yield? 

Mr. AKIN. I yield. 

Mr. TAYLOR. No, in this year’s bill I would remind you that we 

directed the secretary of the Navy to appoint someone—we didn’t 

name the officer—to take this from present through testing. We encouraged him to have a six-month transition where someone would 

right seat, left seat. And then we directed him to have a second officer in charge from testing through delivery. So—— 

Mr. AKIN. Great. I just wanted to make sure because we have 

been in hearings before. And somebody is theoretically responsible, 

but it seemed like they weren’t really. We just want to make sure 

that you really feel like you have got—you are on top of this and 

that you are going to be keeping an eye on it. 

Captain MAHR. Sir, I feel absolutely responsible for EMALS delivery and development. 

Mr. AKIN. And you know where your critical paths and pieces are 

all the way down the line? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. So then what keeps you awake at night then? 

I don’t want to run too long, but—— 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. The critical path right now to system 

function administration, which is the major phase of testing we do 

next where we start launching debt loads up at Lakehurst, is getting those linear motors installed in the trough at Lakehurst. The 

motor support structure is a key to that. And it is—forward structure block 29 that will be delivered to—from the manufacturer precision custom components to Tupelo, Mississippi, in September. 

And then we have to outfit it with the linear motors and ship that 

up to—— 

Mr. AKIN. Let me try and get a mental picture then. What I am 

really seeing is you have got—basically got these motor generators, 

which are great, big hummers. And you have got to make sure 

those are working. You are pretty comfortable now the design on 

that is working okay. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir, no problem. 
14 

Mr. AKIN. And you got some solid state controls that are basically controlling the electricity that is the DC power that is going 

to go from those to the motor in the launch system. Are you pretty 

comfortable with that? Is that straightforward? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir, we are operating the control system 

right now up at Lakehurst. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. Then you have got the motors, which is basically, I assume, big coils that run the entire length of the track. 

Is that correct? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. They are more of an iron bar magnet 

with coils of wire around it. But yes. 

Mr. AKIN. Yes, that is what I mean, coils with an iron. And that 

is creating a magnetic field on both sides of the aluminum plate? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. Then the aluminum plate is going to slide down 

this track of some kind, right? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Now, what is the tricky part of that? 

Captain MAHR. The tricky part of making it work will be controlling it. It is knowing where you are all the way along the track so 

you can keep the force pulling it forward and you don’t retard the 

motion. And that will be part of the control system. We have 

showed it works in the PDRR. We have to build the catapult up 

at Lakehurst to prove it. There is fundamentally no challenge that 

we haven’t encountered before that we—it will be a communication 

issue. It will be a closed look control issue. But that is—— 

Mr. AKIN. Now, these coils that are around this—the iron core— 

are there all these things separate so that you basically are energizing a whole series of them? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir, I have in each—I have—four-foot section. In each four-foot section there are four individual motors. And 

then I have 29 of the 12-foot sections. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. 

Captain MAHR. So in each—— 

Mr. AKIN. And you install that after the carrier is pretty much 

built? Those come straight down from the deck? 

Captain MAHR. The catapult pieces will come in from the deck, 

yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. So that is pretty straightforward. As long as you 

have got that working, you—that is top down kind of thing, whereas the motor generators, that is built way down. And that is what 

you have got to make sure that is in? 

Captain MAHR. The motor generator is the earliest component 

after delivery of the ship. 

Mr. AKIN. And then the aluminum plate piece—is that also a top 

down kind of installation? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. So you are not as worried about that from a critical 

path point of view, other than the fact it has to be ready when you 

want the ship ready? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. Now, how about getting the DC power from 

your motor generators to those motors? Is that any particular prob-
15 

lem from a craft point of view or the kind of insulation you need 

or cables? Or is that very straightforward? 

Captain MAHR. I am hesitant about saying anything is very 

straightforward. We are putting together a very complicated system. But the technology within transformer rectifier—transformer 

rectifier has been around for a long time, so we understand what 

that is. We are talking on a fairly large scale. So there are some 

complexities there. 

When we look at the inverters and the rectifiers and control circuits that we have to do, the process of tuning them is understood. 

We have to take our time and go through it. In fact, that is what 

we are doing right now down in Tupelo with one of the circuits. We 

are doing that control. 

If I can get back to the linear motors for a second. I would be 

remiss if I didn’t talk about—the challenge we are facing right now 

with the linear motors is keeping the interior of the motor drying 

so that I don’t wind up with any short circuits in there. 

The—which I didn’t mention earlier. But it is up at Lakehurst, 

New Jersey. They are spraying it with a sodium dioxide fog as well 

as a salt fog and raining water onto it. We did find some moisture 

intrusion. We believe we know three likely ways that that is getting into the motor. 

One of them is in the test motor only. It won’t exist in production. The other two are where the cables connect into each of the 

internal stators. And then we believe there may be some coming 

in through some location. 

Mr. AKIN. What voltage are you running DC when you hit that 

thing with full power? 

Captain MAHR. I am sorry, sir. I can’t remember that number off 

the top of my head. About 10,000 amps. 

Mr. AKIN. But generally, you are talking a very high voltage or— 

over 1,000? 

Captain MAHR. It is roughly in the neighborhood of 1,000 volts 

and 10,000 max peak on each side. 

Mr. AKIN. So salt water doesn’t work very well with that kind 

of voltage? 

Captain MAHR. No, sir. We have a floating ground built inside 

that we are still operating it—we are operating the motor wet in 

haul because we believe it is safe to operate. We want to get the 

motor dry when we go to the ship. So we will work our way 

through that one. 

Mr. AKIN. Yes. 

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and for your forbearance. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member, for an excellent 

line of questioning. 

We now turn to Captain Massa. 

Mr. MASSA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to ask a few questions. 

And, First Admiral and Captain, personally thank you for your 

incredible focus on this very important issue and, frankly, for the 

service of the thousands of men and women who you represent 

here today whose life’s passions are in maintaining and building 

our Navy. 
16 

I fear I am at somewhat of a loss in that I know a couple of you 

from many, many years ago. But I remind all that I am at my soul 

just a country guy from upstate New York. 

You obviously know a great deal about the nuts and bolts of this 

system. And the Navy has focused incredible resources on this. 

Vice Admiral Architzel, a very blunt question, if I may. What if 

this does not work? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. The technology now is critical to the ship. So 

let me answer the question by saying the Navy recognizes that first 

and foremost. In the past year, we have done a number of steps— 

over the past several years—a number of steps as outlined in my 

written testimony. But I want to take a moment to—specifically 

asking you to use. 

You started with a program assessment review, which began 

when we first knew we potentially could have some issues then 

with the system and where we were and where we thought we 

would be, both in terms of cost and schedule and technical issues 

that were going to come up. That program assessment review done 

with accommodation of industry and—pointed to the fact that we 

needed to increase both systems engineering, which is what Captain Mahr spoke to, as well as our government oversight. 

There were changes made in the General Atomics (G.A.) team, 

General Conger’s team. There were changes made within the program management team. Coming out of those program assessment 

review, it took a while to really analyze what recommendations 

were and then incorporate those recommendations. 

Many of those recommendations, Ranking Member Akin, were 

what drove costs into the program because to take those recommendations and implement them forward, drove manpower into 

the programs and that brings with it attendant costs. And we also 

identified some areas that needed corrected. And we corrected 

them. 

Following that, the Under Secretary of Defense, then Mr. Young, 

directed that a DST, or defense support team, review be conducted 

of the EMALS system. That was done. The findings of that in summary were basically that we—recommendation concurrence to proceed with this system, but pointed to the fact that we needed to 

do some additional risk mitigation, which was also incorporated 

going forward. 

As we continue to move forward, we were not satisfied with 

where the program was headed, so we initiated a three-star level 

ex-com review, which is executive committee review, which was 

made up of members of NAFC, the NAFC system commander specifically, their system commander and representatives from the 

Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD (AT&L)), a—myself as the chair. And we went to review 

with—take a round turn on the program again with the program 

managers, only this time to answer four basic questions: were the 

requirements met, what were our alternatives, what would those 

alternatives be, did we have the right program management in 

place to proceed with this, both in a government and in the industry team and what was our schedule commitment and what was 

our cost, where would we stand with—unit costs and average unit 

costs. 
17 

We took the findings of that committee to a series of briefings 

which culminated with the CNO, the Chief of Naval Operations to 

make a decision on whether to stay with EMALS or to look at a 

different ship. CNO took the information, made a decision. That decision made is now the path we are on, is the path to come forward 

with the EMALS system. 

So what I will tell you is we are committed to the EMALS system. 

Mr. MASSA. Admiral? Admiral? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL [continuing]. EMALS, then we—it is not—we 

are past that. 

Mr. MASSA. Thank you. What happens if it doesn’t work? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Sir, I have every expectation this EMALS 

system will, in fact, work. 

Mr. MASSA. I don’t want to appear insistent. Indulge me and 

allow me, please, to ask the question one more time. What happens 

if this does not work? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. With all candor, sir, the—if that system 

were not to work—it is a system that we are confident will work. 

And we are going to make every effort we have to make sure it 

does work. 

Mr. MASSA. I am a little rusty on engineering. And you guys are 

very much active experts on this. Help me a little bit for just a few 

moments. 

In linear induction motors, by my calculations, yours has a 348- 

foot long throw length. As the stator which is stationary imparts 

a large electromagnetic field. And we are talking in something here 

of 10,000 amps amplified through a pipe of 1,000 volts. So your 

measuring goes in somewhere in the mega ranges. 

As that electromagnetic pulse precedes the shuttle during those 

348 feet, one would suppose there is a peak spike of initiation and 

a peak spike on braking. Has anyone measured that in real-life 

terms? For any of you gentlemen. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir, during the PDRR phase that we conducted up at Lakehurst we had on the front of the dead loads during the launch—we had an M.I. measuring circuit so we—— 

Mr. MASSA. Is that information in two- or three-dimensional 

graphic format available in an unclassified manner that I could be 

briefed on? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

[The information referred to is classified and retained in the committee files.] 

Mr. MASSA. I would appreciate that. I would also like to get some 

understanding of how specifically in Joint Direct Attack Munitions 

(JDAMs) and other exceptionally sensitive weaponized systems 

that electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electromagnetic pulse 

(EMP) is going to be grounded and mitigated, even if it is so much 

as to precede the airplane by nine feet, which by my calculations 

is where that pulse will spike in front of the nose of the aircraft. 

The A/NSP–118 on the F/A–18 is very sensitive, as you know. 

Any—to the point where we during weapons handling on any conventional carrier today shut down all electromagnetic interferences 

forward of the island. Now we are introducing a tremendously new 

variable. 
18 

Is it a true statement—well, ask me this. Has this ever been 

done outside of your half-length, full-power tests in any navy anywhere? 

Captain MAHR. If you just clarify, sir. Has what been done? 

Mr. MASSA. An all system been used? 

Captain MAHR. No, sir. 

Mr. MASSA. So this is the first time? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. MASSA. And we are at the cutting edge of the technology? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. MASSA. And if it works, we are it. We have saved 30 percent 

of the interior volume of the hull, a 20 percent reduction in crew 

and associated lifetime costs. These are all figures that are very, 

very attractive. I will state for the record, gentlemen, first I was 

against the Navy shifting to the construction of the Ford class and 

taking such a large leap of technology simultaneously new propulsion systems, weapons systems, electrical distribution systems, 

flight deck layouts, et cetera. I think it is a bridge too far with exceptionally high risk and very little mitigation capabilities. 

Secondly and for the record, I am exceptionally concerned about 

the inability to extract an answer to the simple question of, ‘‘What 

happens if it does not work.’’ The reality is, gentlemen, we will 

have just bought the world’s largest helicopter carrier. 

And that will, in fact, so totally impact the future of the Navy 

as to the reality that my limited imagination can’t express the 

overall results. This committee and myself will do anything to help. 

But I am very, very worried about this leap in technology. And I 

would like to have that reflected in the record. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Captain Massa, for an excellent line of 

questioning. 

For the record, Captain, Admiral, I would like to know which of 

the weapons systems that the captain brought to your attention 

have already been tested within the electromagnetic pulse of 

these—this system. 

Captain MAHR. Sir, what the Navy—the design of the weapons 

accounted for pulses of this frequency. We are in the process—the 

Navy has never had a source of energy in this frequency before. So 

we are now in the process of working with naval air warfare center 

weapons division, take those in and develop a—go through the 

tests—— 

Mr. TAYLOR. When will those tests be conducted, and when do 

you expect them to be completed? 

Captain MAHR. They will be happening over the next year, sir. 

So we will have periodic—we will take several weapons in through 

the test—— 

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes, I would hope that you would stay in very close 

touch with the committee—— 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. TAYLOR [continuing]. With the results of that. 

Mr. Wittman, were you here at the gavel? We turn to the gentleman from Tidewater area, Mr. Wittman. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
19 

Admiral Architzel, Captain Mahr, Captain Antonio, thank you so 

much for joining us. I want to start out and just make a comment. 

You know, we are kind of pushing the envelope. We are during this 

span of time going to go from 11 to 10 carriers as we phase in the 

Ford and phase out the Enterprise. 

It kind of puts us in a position where if there are challenges out 

there, we are going to be pushed to the max. I am confident in the 

Navy’s assurance that strategically we will not let our guard down 

during that period of time. But it is even more incumbent to make 

sure that systems such as EMALS and the new systems on the 

Ford class carrier are functional and that we stay on schedule. And 

obviously scheduling issues there create larger problems for us 

down the road. 

I wanted to learn a little about the decision making process and 

where we are. I understand about 18 months ago that General 

Atomics put in place a new management and oversight team. I 

wanted to learn a little bit about why that was necessary and if 

we believe that the current problems that we are—well, the problems that we had experienced there were simply an issue of poor 

management or if there were other issues there along the lines that 

have led to some of the hiccups in the EMALS program. 

Admiral Architzel, I will direct the question to you. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. I would like to begin, and I will send it back 

over to Captain Mahr. But to directly address your question, the 

program assessment review was specifically designed to uncover 

what were our areas of concern and focused on both the government and the industry side. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Okay. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. On the industry side we found that General 

Atomics did not have the systems engineering in place, personnel 

in place to really bring this from the development stage into production. And working with General Atomics, we agreed they have 

since hired a team in place to do this. We are confident they have 

the right people in place to make that happen. 

And concurrent with that we also looked at the Navy program 

offices, both program offices here. We looked at both Naval Sea 

Systems Command (NAVSEA)—were they working together technically enough to address many of the things we were starting to 

discuss today about risk and were—could we—our assurance to 

have that done. 

Changes were made in our government structure within how we 

go about doing technically to do the things. And a clear articulation 

of who was responsible, which goes back to the chairman’s point 

about Captain Mahr and Captain Antonio, specifically Mahr and 

EMALS. I think I would like to have Captain Mahr continue the 

answer. 

Captain MAHR. Sir, the brief answer to your question is yes, the 

changes were required. And, yes, they have been effective. In this 

case with management, it is always hard to find the exact thing 

that didn’t go well. But all together I would say neither the Navy 

nor General Atomics appropriately staffed where for the level of 

technology production we were going to have to deliver. As a result 

of that, we got behind in our development and design such that the 
20 

critical design review was pushed out by several months and then 

broken up into incremental phases. 

That is not necessarily bad by itself. In fact, it allowed us to get 

a good look at each of the systems. But it was an indicator we had 

a problem. General Atomics stepped forward, brought in the appropriate level of management and as noted earlier, have continued to 

hire additional experienced managers and engineers from well-represented major industry representatives. 

And then on the Navy side, we brought in a significant number 

of people and kept up over 50 work-years in Naval Air Systems 

Command (NAVAIR) alone and about the same in—— 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. I think there is another piece that Captain 

Antonio should answer, sir, also that goes to concerns about ship 

integration and making sure that this system and the ship are 

ready for that as well. Because there were changes made on that 

side as well. 

Captain ANTONIO. Yes, sir. The Production Assessment Review 

(PAR) recommended—PAR recommendations were not just for General Atomics or just for the Navy. In fact, there were changes made 

at the shipbuilder as well. Northrop Grumman implemented a—or 

put in place a specific project manager whose sole function is 

EMALS integration. And so, we have an effort funded through the 

shipbuilder to make sure that the communication path is there, 

that they are a part of our technical governance and part of our 

overall management of the system through the development cycle 

in SDD so that those lessons learned can be imported over into the 

ship. 

An example of that is as the initial pieces of the linear motor 

structure are being put in the trough in Lakehurst, we had Northrop Grumman shipbuilder production folks onsite watching how 

that install was going, making recommendations for how things 

ought to happen on the ship. 

So all of this was a part of the PAR findings that we needed, different leadership and organization and different design integration 

leading to production on the ship. So we have addressed those. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Mr. Wittman. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Mr. Chairman, could I just—— 

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes, sir, Admiral. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL [continuing]. Correct one—I feel like we 

should correct one thing, or at least I should. When we talked 

about this technology all concerns—this is high-energy electrical 

systems. And we do have a technology that is far advanced. It was 

a competition between the Northrop Grumman design and the 

General Atomics design. 

The graham ring technology of the General Atomics design was 

chosen, which is a core iron hull and a copper, well, u-shaped outer 

coating. And then that is wrapped with litz wire. And the current 

that goes through that linear motor is AC current, three-phase AC 

that goes down that motor. 

So I think we had said some things about DC, and I want to 

make sure we don’t have something that is misinterpreted here. So 

just a technical aspect that when you end up with the linear motor, 

you end up through the power conversion systems at the linear mo-
21 

tors you are sending three-phase AC through those wrapped 

windings, which is what gives you that traveling magnetic wave 

down the linear motor itself. 

The second point was the AC system from the ship is 13 AVA 

plus—wire, which sends 800 volts DC into the storage system generator. It is just a couple things that were said that were just to 

clarify. 

Mr. AKIN. You have thoroughly confused me now. Let us start at 

the beginning. Okay? You start with the ship’s generators. They 

are generating what? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Thirteen eight K AC power. 

Mr. AKIN. AC power? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. That runs to the motor generator? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Runs through a transformer rectifier that 

comes up and rectifies it to 800 volts DC. And I will let—— 

Mr. AKIN. So it is converted before it even gets to the motor generator to DC? It is a little more complicated than I thought. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Then you have got a DC motor spinning at 4,200 RPM. 

Captain MAHR. There is an exciter on one end. And that is where 

you get the electrical acceleration from. So we run it into the exciter and that is what actually spins up the generator on the other 

side. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay, so the motor is running from a converted AC 

to a DC. So it is a DC motor. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. It is running. It is spinning a generator, which is generating, what, DC power? 

Captain MAHR. AC. 

Mr. AKIN. AC power? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. It is generating AC power, which is a threephase AC, which is then going up to the actual static motors that 

are running along the launch? 

Captain MAHR. In the middle for the transmission lines we 

transmit it as DC. 

Mr. AKIN. You transmit it as DC? So—solid state we can flip it 

back whichever way we want at our convenience? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. And the reason you do that just for the 

length of transmission on that. 

Captain MAHR. You want more losses in the long line. 

Mr. AKIN. I would love to ask another question, but I think I 

want to—— 

Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Chairman, you are—I mean, Mr. Ranking Member, have at it. 

Mr. AKIN. Well, one other thing. If you have got a large pulse of 

magnetic force near the aircraft and you have already tested this 

thing at half-length, have you ever stuck an F/A–18, just sit it 

there, not to launch it, but just sit it there and let that power go 

across it and see what had happened? The reason I ask that years 

ago I was in charge of maintenance at a steel mill. And we put 
22 

some transformers in to power the electric arc. For instance, they 

had carbon rods about the size of telephone poles that you drop 

into—three of them that you drop into scrap. And it makes lightening. And it uses a fair amount of electricity. 

Well, we had at a time where those transformers, there would be 

eddy currents that would just vaporize a two or three-inch bolt 

that, you know, that you didn’t know where they were going to go. 

So there is—when you start dealing with tremendously high power 

kinds of things, that can have some influence. 

You have got a magnetic field anyplace you have got a wire that 

is inducing. So I guess my question is can you stick an F/A–18 

there with its radar and all that kind of stuff and just fire this 

thing off a few times and check? Because it would be nice if we 

could launch them. It would be better if we could launch them and 

have the thing working when it gets up in the air, too, you know. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. In fact, that specific test is planned as 

soon as we get the Lakehurst catapult operating. We will sit an F/ 

A–18 astride the trough, and we will move the armature underneath it to see what the affects are. It will be—airplanes, but we 

ought to be able to get a lot of good data off of that. I don’t expect 

there will be any problems. 

Mr. TAYLOR. I apologize for interrupting again. The timeline on 

that is what? On that test? 

Captain MAHR. I will have to get back to you on the exact date, 

sir. I don’t know that date off the top of my head. 

Mr. AKIN. We are talking a year or two away? Or—— 

Captain MAHR. No, next year, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Next year? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. 

Captain MAHR. It will be during our system function demonstration. 

Mr. AKIN. On paper what do we think from an engineering point 

of view? Will it be okay? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. NAVAIR looked at that, and we—the 

specific engineers for our EMI team have worked at it and it does 

not seem an issue. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Ranking Member Akin, there is significant 

data that—and we will get back with Representative Massa and 

his request. I have done this before. We will come back again to 

him to clarify. 

In the production development and risk reduction phase, which 

is the PDRR—was an acronym used, so I want to put that one— 

that was the initial—in that phase, we had antennas actually on 

the sleds that were pulled down to measure these fields. And the 

fields were measured, both the magnetic fields around and in the 

area of the—that data exists, sir. 

And so, what the plan that Captain Mahr is talking about is to 

further go through both looking at—although we don’t expect there 

to be Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance (HERO) 

or Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Fuel (HERF) or Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Personnel (HERP). Those are 

electromagnetic magnetic interference for ordnance or fuel or per-
23 

sonnel. That is in our test plan. And we are going to continue to 

look at that. So it is not like we are adding that to the plan. That 

plan exists. It has been throughout the program. 

Captain MAHR. And we have been doing component-level testing 

down at Tupelo, Mississippi, on the actuated power trains. We have 

had antennas down there gathering the M.I. data. We have not 

seen anything abnormal outside of what we—— 

Mr. AKIN. Thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Ranking Member. 

We now want to recognize the previous chairman of this committee, a physicist and our resident expert on electromagnetic 

pulse, Mr. Bartlett. 

Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you very much. We have had a really excellent discussion of the technical problems that resulted in the 

cost overruns and the delays. But I would like to spend just a couple moments of reflecting on how we got here and lessons learned 

from that. 

In a previous life I was privileged to work for the Navy and then 

for a captive Navy contractor, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab where we wrote requests for proposals (RFPs). 

And then I moved to the industrial world. I worked for eight years 

in IBM Federal Systems Division where we responded to the kinds 

of RFPs that I helped write when I was working for the Navy and 

for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. 

And there is an interesting and unavoidable phenomenon. It is 

characterized as optimistic assumptions of cost and development by 

the staff who put together a little briefing for us here. When I 

wrote for the IBM Corporation, that was kind of characterized by 

the biggest and best liar won. The person can be the best presenter 

for a very overly optimistic program of cost and assumptions is 

going to win the contract. 

So they wouldn’t let us do that at IBM. We couldn’t lie. And so, 

we operated at a disadvantage in getting contracts. And this is all 

not intentional. Obviously, the people working on this are very optimistic about it, very confident in their abilities and so forth. 

But the Navy had in one sector of their development a real advantage. And that was the applied physics lab. And they have 

shepherded through many, many years now the fleet ballistic missile system development through all of the fleet ballistic missiles. 

And they were looking over the shoulder of people like you in the 

Navy who are running the program, advising them as to whether 

or not this proposal from industry was likely to work. 

And the applied physics lab is a unique organization. I think it 

is the only one in the country that will not compete with industry. 

And since it will not compete with industry, industry will share 

with it its deepest, darkest proprietary secrets so that the applied 

physics lab can be in a position to advise the Navy in what is likely 

to work and what will not work because the contractor is always 

going to be overly optimistic about what he can do and about how 

quickly he can do it and how low the costs will be. 

Since we don’t have in other parts of the Navy that kind of a— 

and there are 3,800 people there, about half of them really professional people. We don’t have that anywhere else in the Navy. What 
24 

can we do so that—you know, if you came into this program after 

the contract was let, you were handed a dog that couldn’t hunt. 

And, you know, what do we do to avoid that in the future if we 

don’t have other APLs to help us in other parts of the—of our procurement in the Navy? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Well, I think the—we absolutely do value 

the work of APL and those laboratories and technology assets we 

do have to apply to this. And going down in this program, as we 

mentioned, some of the—one of the tasks was on the defense support team, which included industry representatives and also laboratory expertise, as you were mentioning, to go back and tell us 

did we have this right as well. 

So Representative Bartlett, I just think I agree with you that we 

need those—we need that both within our laboratories as well as 

within our capability to know because that is where the expertise 

resides. And so, I don’t argue for a minute that we need that kind 

of ability to call on because we need it to know the experts in the 

field, if you will. 

Mr. BARTLETT. But neither you nor we have the depth of experience and knowledge that an institution like Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab have. Wouldn’t it be advantageous if we 

had those in other parts of our procurement so that we could have 

that kind of support and guidance? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. I can only agree. But I think they are available to us to call on them through—as needed through—when we 

have those kind of technical challenges. We can reach out to industry or laboratories to have that brought in in addition to our own 

field activities that have that expertise, perhaps not as great as— 

because we have new technology and we have to reach out to them 

to bring that as well. And I believe we do. 

Mr. BARTLETT. I have been here nearly 17 years now. And the 

story has never changed. Every program is late and over cost. And, 

you know, what can we do to avoid repeating this in the future? 

And it all comes from the honest assumption on the part of the industry and those who are looking at the proposal that, gee, we really can do that. We need to have that. We really can do that. 

And, you know, how do we avoid the problems that are created 

by this overly optimistic assumptions of cost and development, 

which apparently is the fundamental root cause of the schedule 

overruns and the cost overruns in all of our programs? How can we 

avoid that? Now, the APL helped the Navy to avoid that by saying, 

you know, that is just overly optimistic. They are not going to be 

able to do that. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. I believe what comes with this is proper systems engineering. And I don’t use that as a catch phrase. I believe 

it. And we have come to that over the past year and-a-half as we 

have in the Navy taken a round turn on our process to come forward with program development and to take what it means to take 

a requirement and then give it to industry and say go build this. 

When industry gets that, they don’t understand enough of what 

it takes to build that to give a realistic estimate at times. So what 

we have to do is translate that requirement down into a lot more 

detail, which goes into systems design specification, that allows industry to know exactly what it is we want them to build. And they 
25 

can then properly price and give us properly pricing to what it 

would be. 

To your point sometimes this is not delivered or intentional, 

some—it would just be a not understanding what are the ‘‘-ilities’’ 

that go with this. What does it mean to have to develop a system 

or a ship that will go 50 knots versus one that may go 42 knots 

or to have this high-power, high-energy system and be able to 

launch aircraft at 70 million foot pounds to 150 knot end speed in 

a 360 power stroke, 360-foot power stroke when the Key Performance Parameter (KPP) just says make a sortie rate or reduce people. 

And so, we have to really understand that industry can get in 

and—we don’t need just to say you can do this. But what does it 

really take to get there? And that is the work we have to do. We 

owe it to this committee. We owe it to the Navy. And we are working diligently to make that happen across the board. 

Unfortunately, a lot of our programs are well past this stage. 

And we are living with the—what we didn’t do in the first. But I 

will tell you in future programs and forward that is exactly our intent, to not replicate this in the future. But I know that doesn’t answer your question today because you would like to see it in all 

programs that have happened in the past. 

And we needed to do that. And we need to do that as we go forward. That is as straightforward an answer as I can give you. I 

think you hit exactly on what we need to do. And we intend to do 

that, sir. 

Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Mr. Bartlett, again, with a great line of 

questioning. 

The chair now recognizes Mr. Coffman. 

Mr. COFFMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think this was an interesting lesson in acquisition reform. And I think the committee 

has made great steps in terms of providing some guidance in having one individual responsible for this project, that is going to stay 

with the project. 

Mr. Chairman, I am a simple Army, Marine Corps infantry guy. 

And I would like to defer to some of the other members that have 

expertise, technical expertise if they would like to ask any other 

questions and defer my time. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Mr. Coffman. 

Any follow-up questions? I have a few myself, but I would certainly want to let you gentleman go first. 

Mr. BARTLETT. I appreciate very much the hearing. I am sorry 

I have got to run. I am now a half-hour late. But it was so important I stay. Thank you very much. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you, Mr. Bartlett. 

Mr. Wittman. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Go ahead, Mr. Chairman. I can follow-up after 

you. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Gentlemen, a couple of quick things that I am curious about. I will use the analogy we have a new generation of turbine. You can look at a previous generation, look at the new one 
26 

and have some idea whether you are repeating a past mistake or 

making improvements—diesel engines, bombs. 

With so many of these technologies being new, I am curious what 

you use as your benchmark to know if you are going in the right 

direction. So I am going to ask a couple questions along that line. 

With the motor generators, is there anything similar to that commercially available anywhere of that size or capacity right now? 

Captain MAHR. There are commercially available motor generators. They don’t have the same power density that we do. So we 

have—— 

Mr. TAYLOR. By a factor of what, Admiral? 

Captain MAHR. I can get you that answer, sir. I have not done 

an industry survey recently. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Well, give me an idea. Is this twice as large, 10 

times as large? It is something that you could go out and—— 

Captain MAHR. I will go back and get—I believe we are less than 

twice as power dense as the commercial ones. We are not a huge 

leap. And we have to go back a little bit in history. 

In 2004, we were pretty far ahead. But commercial technology 

has caught on. 

Mr. TAYLOR. All right. Okay, your prime power interface system, 

the one you are going to use for this program—is there something 

similar to it that is on an existing Navy program? Is this substantially larger than anything else you are using? 

Captain MAHR. No, sir, it is comparable to what industry uses. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Okay. So you don’t expect any surprises there? 

Captain MAHR. No, sir. Transformer rectifiers have been around 

for a long time. The control technology has been around. So this 

is really tuning it for our circuit. 

Mr. TAYLOR. And I realize there is not another electromagnetic 

launch out there. But is that technology being used, again, commercially in a different form but similar form? And where would 

that be? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. Linear induction motors are used in various applications in industry. We are at a larger scale, obviously, 

than most of those. But the graham ring motor is a well-understood 

technology. 

Mr. TAYLOR. And it is used where, Admiral? 

Captain MAHR. I will get you some examples. I don’t have any 

off the top of my head. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Just for my information, your motor generator is 

spinning at 4,200 RPM. How much does it drop with each launch? 

Captain MAHR. If I can just make a statement. It was 4,200 

RPM—we are now operating at 4,000. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Okay. 

Captain MAHR. We lowered the operating point a little bit. Over 

a sequence of launches if we launched a full deck of aircraft, the 

motor generator will bottom out somewhere around 2,400 RPM. 

Mr. TAYLOR. How much, sir? 

Captain MAHR. Two thousand, four hundred. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Okay. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Mr. Chairman? 

Mr. TAYLOR. And the recovery time is what, sir, the recovery 

time to get that—— 
27 

Captain MAHR. It starts immediately, sir. So it comes back up. 

Over a very brief period of time it will be back up to 4,000. 

Mr. TAYLOR. I am sorry to cut you off, Admiral. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. No, sir. Pardon me for interrupting. I think 

it might be helpful, sir, to answer that specific question if Captain 

Mahr would walk us through what goes on during these high-cycle 

testing of the generator because it cuts right to your exact question. 

Mr. TAYLOR. We would appreciate that, Admiral. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. And I think he can provide the answer, 

both—in three different scenarios it will show you how these are— 

this exact phenomenon is measured. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Sure. 

Please, Admiral. 

Captain MAHR. What scenario? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Carrier launches. 

Captain MAHR. Okay. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Cyclic ops. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. In the high-cycle test ongoing at Tupelo 

right now we have three different scenarios, three main scenarios. 

We have a carrier qualification launch scenario. Carrier qualification in the Navy generally has a lighter weight aircraft and we 

launch them more frequently. And we have a cyclic ops scenario 

where you launch combat-weight aircraft, so a fully loaded aircraft. 

But you only launch 24 at a time for standard launch event. 

And then mission capable, which is degraded launch mode where 

we still want to launch the same number of aircraft for a cyclic ops 

event but we understand that we lose some capability, either motor 

generator is not available due to maintenance or some other issue 

or we lose one of the motors itself on the—— 

In the carrier qualification episode, when the launch is commanded and the pulse is sent out, we have got a motor generator 

operating at 4,200 RPM. There are 12 of those throughout the ship. 

All 12 of them can supply energy to all four catapults. 

When the launch is commanded, the power system as a whole 

starts drawing down. What we simulate in high-cycle tests is that 

coming off of one generator. That generator starts to draw down as 

soon as the generator power starts drawing down, the setter side 

draws power off the ship’s power and tries to bring it back up. So 

even as I am pulling the RPM down, just like a flywheel, on the 

other side I am trying to spin it back up. 

So we are constantly feeding energy back into the system and 

trying to keep it at in a static sense. Each time I launch in between 

launches is about 45 seconds. The energy starts coming back up 

and will not quite reach 4,200 RPM. And we will command another 

launch. It comes back down again. 

And we see this sawtooth curve. And sawtooth curve at the bottom will bottom out at about 2,400 RPM before it starts coming 

back up. We repeat that sequence, again, accumulate close to 

20,000 pulses on each of those three types of—— 

Mr. TAYLOR. It is my understanding that the A1B power plant 

on the Ford class is designed to go the entire life of the ship without refueling. Is that correct? 

Captain MAHR. Sir, I defer to Captain Antonio. 
28 

Mr. TAYLOR. It is not? 

Captain ANTONIO. No, sir, it is not. There will be a refueling 

complex overhaul plan for the Ford at about mid-life. 

Mr. TAYLOR. And mid-life is expected to be what? 

Captain ANTONIO. At about the 25-year point. The ship’s life is 

being designed for 50 years. 

Mr. TAYLOR. As a matter of curiosity, how much of that 25-year 

life is used up in the launch of aircraft? What do you envision? 

Captain ANTONIO. Sir, I am not qualified to talk about the propulsion plan. I would have to defer that question and get back with 

you. 

[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on 

page 53.] 

Mr. TAYLOR. Okay. I would be curious, obviously. It is going to 

be a new draw on the power plant that was not there in previous 

platforms. 

Going to Mr. Bartlett’s excellent line of questioning, you are cando people. You do not come before Congress and say we can’t do 

it. That is a double-edged sword. And we do often find ourselves 

with programs like the littoral combat ship (LCS) where can-do 

people suddenly find out that the can-do attitude wasn’t enough to 

make up for a contractor that failed. 

With that thought, I am particularly concerned with the line of 

questioning that Captain Massa had as to what affect this is going 

to have on the electronics systems of the aircraft that you launch, 

on the weapons systems of those craft. I would remind you that 

former governor, now Secretary of the Navy Mabus actually used 

his power as governor of Mississippi to prevent the Empress barge 

from being used off our shores some 20 years ago. 

So it is something that the secretary is aware of, the electromagnetic pulse that goes back at—and what I would hope is not 

the case is that in the Navy’s effort to get what I consider to be 

a great technology on this vessel that we are intentionally 

downplaying the affects on some of these systems and intentionally 

low-balling the cost of whatever changes would have to come as a 

result of that, not so much to the EMALS system, but all the other 

electromagnetic platforms that are associated with that vessel, 

which goes to my line of questioning about how quickly—and Mr. 

Wittman’s line of questioning and Mr. Akin’s line of questioning. 

How quickly are you going to test this in conjunction with all the 

other things that are going on on that ship? 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. And I think the best way to answer it 

is to come back, again, to the PDRR. I was able to locate the data 

I had. The general limit right now would be 150 millivolts for 

HERO, hazardous emissions to ordnance. 

In the testing we did with the full-scale, half-length catapult we 

never exceeded 120 millivolts. It is typical to work 40 to 80 

millivolts. At the height above those troughs where you would see 

the ordnance test fired aircraft pass by. So we have got the field 

data from real tests that say we are okay. 

The challenge that you give us and we have already accepted 

ourselves is go through that. And that is a process that can take 

place over the next year. I am going to go validate that in the laboratories. We are going to put the instrumented aircraft over the 
29 

catapult trough. We will continuously measure it. We will be doing 

that in high-cycle tests at the component level. And I will owe you 

a future brief on the data that comes out of those tests. 

Mr. TAYLOR. And whose job will it be to inform congress of the 

unintended consequences and the affects that it has on other systems? 

Captain MAHR. Sir, I have responsibility—— 

Mr. TAYLOR. That is your job? 

Captain MAHR [continuing]. For the EMALS program. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Okay. 

Mr. Courtney, do you have any questions? 

Mr. COURTNEY. I am just taking a break from health care. 

Mr. TAYLOR. This is probably a televised hearing. It is probably 

the wrong place to hide, Mr. Courtney. 

Anyone else? 

Yes, Mr. Wittman? 

Mr. WITTMAN. I just wanted to ask another additional question 

and understand a little more about the administrative aspects of 

the things that have gone on. If you could, if you could explain the 

difference between what is in place now, the undefinitized contract 

action that is there with General Atomics on the EMALS for the 

USS Ford and the final contract action that you are pursuing. Can 

you tell me: Are both of those fixed price contracts? 

And where do those two frameworks lead us if they are risks 

that come up down the road? In other words, if there are things 

that throw us off schedule if they are production issues, if they are 

performance issues there. Who assumes the risk there, both from 

a function standpoint and then also from a time standpoint? Because as we know, if we get pressed on this, you see the—we have 

seen the windows here are fairly small as far as making sure all 

these pieces work. 

Who assumes the risk there? Because we all, as Mr. Bartlett 

said, we all get concerned about timing on this. And I brought that 

up as far as the production schedule for the Ford in relation to the 

Enterprise going out and that 3-year window where we go from 11 

to 10 and then also the cost considerations on this. I just want to 

try to get you all to put that in perspective on what the differences 

are between those two. 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. On the—contract action that the Navy 

and General Atomics signed on June 30th is the not-to-exceed price 

that will when we definitize the contract in the standard for definitizing that contract is 180 days, which would put it at the end of 

December. We definitize at or below the not-to-exceed price. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Okay. 

Captain MAHR. And will be a fixed price contract. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Okay. 

Captain MAHR. So I believe your comparison is fair that—— 

Mr. WITTMAN. Okay. And the final contract action then is going 

to be fixed price also? 

Captain MAHR. Fixed price contract. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Where is the risk assumed? 

Captain MAHR. Any changes that come out of the systems design 

and development test, as an example—so if—I have talked about 

the wet motor. We have some moisture intrusion. The changes that 
30 

come out of that are included in the cost of that contract. Any 

change I find in SDD I will fund SDD to develop the nonrecurring 

engineering on that. And that will be handed over to be included 

in the ship’s—CVN–78 at no additional cost to the government. 

Mr. WITTMAN. And so, you will also have that reflected in the 

final contract action? Also it is in the—— 

Captain MAHR. Yes, sir. That wording is currently in the 

undefinitized contract. That is already there. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Okay. All right, very good. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Akin. 

Mr. AKIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I had a couple of just kind of, ‘‘gee whiz’’ questions here to try 

and get a better perspective on what you are doing. First of all, in 

terms of your energy storage, you decided to go basically with a 

motor generators approach. Did you consider using capacitors or 

something like that? Or is this way beyond what we can do with 

a bank of capacitors? 

Captain MAHR. There are other technologies out there that may 

be applicable out in the future. At the time the total contract was 

proposed, General Collins was proposing the motor generator. So 

we did not look at changing that from the—proposal. And—— 

Mr. AKIN. That is an old tried and true kind of thing in a way. 

But in terms of energy density, I suppose that is something that 

you are thinking about is how much space is it taking and all. But 

it does seem like it is—in a way, even though it is old, it seems 

like a bank of capacitors or something in a way are somewhat simpler. But—— 

Captain MAHR. There is battery technology. There is other technology out there for future ships, again, beyond CVN–78 that the 

Navy is looking at—and to Representative Bartlett’s comments, 

that the labs are working on right now. 

Mr. AKIN. Okay. And then the second thing, I guess, is the question is if you have this capacity to store up a lot of electrical energy 

and discharge it, would this ever be used in other kinds of weapons 

systems? Have you looked at that at all or not particularly? Or is 

that classified? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Well, it is being looked at other systems. As 

an example, that would be the rail gun. 

Mr. AKIN. Say again. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. A rail gun technology, which uses the same 

kind of technology. That is prototypical in development. That kind 

of technology is used there, as an example. And you mentioned—— 

Mr. AKIN. Where would that be sort of an anti-missile type of 

system or something or what? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. The technology is just to at this point would 

be to accelerate a projectile, which can get to significantly high 

speeds. I would like to end the conversation—the discussion there 

because it does get into other areas. But that is an example of one. 

And also using technology like this can go into transportation systems as well when you get into use of electromagnetics on rail 

transport. Those kinds of things are being looked at, both commercially as well as could be looked at—— 
31 

Mr. AKIN. I was thinking lasers because our chemical airborne 

laser stores energy chemically to get a lot of energy all stored up. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. This is a different way of storing some energy. 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Yes, sir. 

Mr. AKIN. Yes. Just a couple of, you know, popular science questions. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Admiral, I know that, again, going back that you 

are an admiral because you are a can-do person. You accept the 

challenge when you are given to it. You don’t question orders. But 

going back to Captain Massa’s question, is it fair to say that should 

this program, for whatever reason—its affect on other weapons systems, its affect on other ships nearby—for whatever reason failed 

to materialize, would the delay be more than two years? And would 

the additional costs to the taxpayers to finish this carrier be more 

than $2 billion? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Mr. Chairman, to that question directly, if 

we had to—yes, the answer would be most definitely more than two 

years and would be a significant cost. 

Mr. TAYLOR. So what do you think it would be, sir? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. I really don’t have a cost estimate. Although 

I do think that to go—in our discussions and come forward, sir, this 

year about with the CNO and about taking this to discussion— 

should we stay with EMALS—our discussion should we stay with 

EMALS or revert back to steam, at that time we looked at anywhere from 12 to 18 months delay if we had made the decision, 

say, 6 months ago. So to make that decision in the future would 

clearly be one, that when the decision was made by the CNO, we 

looked at—he looked all of us in the eye and particularly to the 

Systems Command (SYSCOM) commanders and myself and Mr. 

Stackley and said now we need to deliver on this system. 

It clearly is a decision made. And without having that would be 

at least a two-year delay. And the cost would be significant. 

Mr. TAYLOR. For stability purposes, is the size, weight and placement of the EMALS system—if it had to be replaced with a steam 

catapult—does that put you in a situation as far as stability and 

your center of gravity, center of buoyancy where you cannot finish 

the ship? 

Captain ANTONIO. The last part of your question threw me there, 

sir. I was going to say that the relative weights and location of the 

steam system compared to the EMALS system are not that significant. There is some weight difference in some locations in terms of 

center of gravity which would require a difference of the placement 

of some ballasts in the ship. 

But it is not to the point where the ship design would not be able 

to accept it if it were possible to do it if a decision were made. It 

would just be extremely costly and time-consuming. 

Mr. TAYLOR. And just for the benefit of the committee because 

particularly I know the gentleman from the Tidewater area is very 

keenly aware of the delivery of carriers, as he should be—but for 

the benefit of the committee, what is the domino effect to our now 

10-carrier fleet should this ship not be delivered on time? Aren’t 
32 

there vessels that are fairly close to retirement that we are planning on this vessel taking the place of? 

And doesn’t that not put—I mean, again, just to give—make the 

members aware of the gravity of this decision. Worst case scenario, 

the vessel is delayed by three years. How many carriers do we have 

then? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Sir, the Enterprise is scheduled to decom or 

deactivate in November of 2012. At that point, the Ford will deliver, as mentioned, September of 2015. So the next carrier—what 

you have remaining at that point is the Nimitz class carriers. 

So you have—to that is the Nimitz itself. And so, she will run 

up towards 50 years. And I will have to get exactly when that is. 

But she comes in around the time we would be, on the current 

schedule, somewhere close to when we would be with the next 

CVN–79 delivered. So that is about the timeframe—to put you on 

the 2012, 2013 timeframe. 

Mr. TAYLOR. This is a reminder we did give the Navy in this 

year’s bill temporary permission to dip down to, I believe, 10 carriers. And so, the failure for this ship to deliver on time makes it, 

not just a three-year permission. It could extend it out to six, seven 

years. And that is why, again, for all the reasons that you have 

heard our concerns today that this has to work. 

I would like to tell the committee that I had a lengthy conversation with the secretary of the Navy on this last Friday, that he is 

very much onboard with our language to have a clear line of authority as to who is responsible for this program, a clear transition 

from one officer to another. And, again, I very much appreciate you 

gentlemen being here today. 

If there are no further questions, I would hope that on those 

things that were unanswered today that you would get back to us. 

Is two weeks a reasonable amount of time to get those answers? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. Yes, sir, we can do that, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. TAYLOR. Okay. 

Any further questions? The subcommittee stands adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:37 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 
A P P E N D I X 

JULY 16, 2009 

PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD 

JULY 16, 2009 

(37) 
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WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING 

THE HEARING 

JULY 16, 2009 

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RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. TAYLOR 

Captain ANTONIO. The reactor energy needs projected for aircraft launching is less 

than 2% of total energy budget for CVN 78 class ships regardless of catapult system. 

Therefore, over the 25-year life, it is projected that less than 2% will be used in the 

launching of aircraft. [See page 28.] 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING 

JULY 16, 2009 

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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. TAYLOR 

Mr. TAYLOR. ‘‘Prior to committing to EMALS as the aircraft launcher for CVN– 

21/CVN–78, what real-world tests, simulations, modeling, calculations, etc., did the 

Navy perform to assure itself that EMI/EMP from EMALS would not create a problem for aircraft, munitions, and other shipboard systems? If the Navy performed 

real-world tests, were these full-scale tests involving actual aircraft, munitions, 

other shipboard systems, and full-scale, full-power EMALS technology? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. An EMALS Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3) 

Working Group consisting of subject matter specialists was established early in the 

EMALS program to examine E3 impacts to personnel, aircraft, ordnance and equipment. The EMALS E3 program is being conducted in accordance with the well established processes described in the Department of Defense Handbook on Electromagnetic Environmental Effects and Spectrum Certification Guidance for the Acquisition Process (MIL–HDBK–237). The program includes early characterization testing on full scale, full power hardware; calculation, modeling and analysis using well 

established techniques to assess compliance with requirements; and standard design 

techniques to mitigate risks. 

During the EMALS Program Definition and Risk Reduction phase, the Navy conducted Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) characterization testing using full scale, full power EMALS technology. During this 

phase the Navy used instrumentation—including Gauss Meters with 3-axis probes, 

Spectrum Analyzers, and loop antennas—as surrogates for aircraft, munitions, and 

shipboard systems. Testing examined EMI, magnetic, ordnance, and personnel risks 

at the component and system levels to define the EMALS-generated E3 environments. The data was compared to previously conducted modeling and simulation 

and aircraft, munitions, and shipboard design specifications. The results of the testing were used to validate the analytical models and refine the simulations used to 

establish the EMALS design requirements prior to entering the System Development and Demonstration phase. 

The E3 characterization results were also used to support modeling and analyses 

to predict emissions from the EMALS power components and cable systems below 

deck. Standard practices for integration of high-power shipboard machinery, including separation distances (e.g., isolation of equipment and cable arrangement), 

shielding, and filtering, were then incorporated into the ship design and arrangement to insure that safe stand-off requirements were provided. 

Mr. TAYLOR. If the Navy, prior to committing to EMALS as the aircraft launcher 

for CVN–21/CVN–78, did not employ real-world tests involving actual aircraft, munitions, other shipboard systems, and full-scale, full-power EMALS technology, what 

is the risk that the Navy will discover at some point that EMI/AMP from EMALS 

does indeed create a problem for aircraft, munitions, or other shipboard systems? 

Since EMALS is critical to making the ship capable of supporting CTOL aircraft operations, and since problems for aircraft, munitions, and other shipboard systems 

created by EMI/EMP from EMALS could prevent the Navy from using (or fully 

using) EMALS, was it wise for the Navy to commit to EMALS without conducting 

such tests? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. The EMALS Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3) program is being conducted in accordance with well established processes described in 

the Department of Defense Handbook on Electromagnetic Environmental Effects 

and Spectrum Certification Guidance for the Acquisition Process (MIL–HDBK–237). 

The E3 program consists of early characterization testing on full scale, full power 

hardware; calculation, modeling and analysis, using well established techniques to 

assess compliance with requirements; and standard design techniques to mitigate 

risks. Analyses of the observed and projected operational levels of Electromagnetic 

Interference (EMI) show no emission characteristics that require mitigation steps 

beyond the standard techniques used to integrate high power electrical/electronic 

systems in the ship. 

E3 testing will continue through 2010 on full scale catapult systems and subsystems using instrumentation, aircraft and weapons firing circuits. If necessary, 
58 

additional mitigation, including adjustments to space arrangements, separation distances (isolation & cable arrangement), shielding, and filtering will be incorporated. 

Modeling, analysis, design mitigations, and testing throughout the development of 

EMALS have provided an appropriate level of assurance that the system will operate properly. 

Mr. TAYLOR. If it turns out that EMI/EMP from EMALS creates problems for aircraft, munitions, or other shipboard systems, what would be the potential strategies 

for mitigating or working around these problems? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. The Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Electromagnetic 

Pulse (EMP) test results obtained during the EMALS Program Definition and Risk 

Reduction phase were used to support analyses characterizing the emissions from 

the EMALS power components and cable systems below deck. Standard practices for 

integration of high-power shipboard machinery—including separation distances 

(e.g., isolation of equipment and cable arrangement), shielding and filtering—were 

then incorporated into the ship design and arrangement to ensure that safe standoff distances were provided. These techniques will be applied if further mitigation 

is required. 

Mr. TAYLOR. What elements of the EMALS development effort do the Navy consider to be more than low risk (i.e., low-to-moderate, moderate, moderate-to-high, or 

high risk)? What are the risk levels for these elements? What are the dates when 

the Navy expects to learn whether these elements of the EMALS development effort 

have been successfully completed? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. The EMALS Risk Management Program assesses risk levels 

on a monthly basis as low, moderate or high based on their impact on performance, 

schedule and cost. Assessments are conducted by senior personnel assigned to the 

EMALS program in accordance with the PMA 251 Risk Management Process. The 

Navy, General Atomics and Northrop Grumman participate in both the monthly 

EMALS Program Risk Assessment Board and CVN 21 Program Risk Board meetings. 

As of July 16, 2009, the program assessed nine risks at the moderate level and 

none at the high level. Specifically: 

• If EMALS emissions exceed Hazardous Radiation to Ordnance (HERO) limits, 

then shipboard ordnance handling may be affected, requiring changes to ship 

design. This risk is moderate with a plan to mitigate to low, via testing of 

EMALS components during 2010. 

• If EMALS equipment is damaged during storage at the Lead Design Yard or 

during ship installation, then ship construction delays or program cost increase 

may result. This risk is currently moderate with a plan to mitigate it to low 

in early 2010. 

• If unanticipated shared Energy Storage Subsystem (ESS) performance problems 

are observed during testing on the ship, the catapult commissioning and testing 

schedule may be impacted. This risk is currently moderate with a plan to mitigate it to low in mid-2011. 

• If the Prime Power Interface Subsystem (PPIS) transformer/rectifier fails shock 

testing and correction requires a significant design change to the enclosure, 

transformer or choke design, the ship construction schedule may be impacted. 

This risk is currently moderate with a plan to mitigate it to low by the end of 

2010. 

• If Launch Motor Subsystem (LMS) stator assembly fails Environmental Qualification Tests, the LMS production schedule may be impacted to correct and 

retest the deficiencies. This risk is currently moderate with a plan to mitigate 

it to low by the end of 2010. 

• If EMALS topside emissions exceed system interference or Emissions Control 

(EMCON) thresholds, design changes may be needed to EMALS or topside ship 

arrangements. This risk is currently moderate with a plan to mitigate it to low 

by testing the EMALS components during 2010. 

• If the motor support structure production rate observed during the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase cannot be improved during ship set 

production, the LMS may not meet Required In-Yard Dates (RIYDs) for installation of the third and fourth catapult. This risk is currently moderate with a 

plan to mitigate it to low by the end of 2009. 

• If the Motor/Generator (M/G) production rate observed during the SDD phase 

cannot be improved during ship set production, some M/Gs may not meet the 

RIYDs. This risk is currently moderate with a plan to mitigate it to low by the 

end of 2009. 
59 

• If the development test program is unable to fully test the Power Conversion 

Subsystem (PCS) shared inverter shipboard configuration (3 Inverters per 

phase and a set of inverters being shared between two launchers), ship integrated testing may be delayed. This risk is currently moderate with a plan to 

mitigate it to low by the end of July of 2009. 

All other EMALS risks are currently assessed as low. 

Mr. TAYLOR. How many months of additional delay, in which elements of the 

EMALS development effort, can be absorbed without affecting the construction 

schedule or construction cost of CVN–78? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. EMALS has specific Required In-Yard Dates (RIYD) for each 

component. In general, the EMALS CVN 78 production delivery schedule maintains 

at least six months of margin to the RIYD for all components with the exception 

of some of the Launch Motor Subsystem (LMS) trough components and Energy Storage Subsystem (ESS) Motor Generators. LMS components have at least five months 

of margin, while the two key ESS Motor Generators have approximately two months 

each. Production of LMS and ESS components is ongoing and being closely monitored. 

Mr. TAYLOR. What has been the cost and schedule performance of the EMALS development effort since the start of the year? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. The EMALS System Development and Demonstration (SDD) 

Phase Cumulative Cost Performance Index declined slightly in June, representing 

an increase in the existing cost variance. This existing cost variance was due to the 

cost of delays initially encountered in the delivery of equipment to the full scale test 

site at Lakehurst in the last quarter of calendar year 2008. The Cumulative Schedule Performance Index improved during the same period. Using a critical path analysis, program execution, which was four months behind the baseline schedule in 

January, has been reduced to three months behind the baseline schedule. 

Mr. TAYLOR. When the Navy originally awarded EMALS to General Atomics, why 

did the Navy not immediately begin taking steps to help General Atomics evolve 

from being an entity with a strength in research and development into one that was 

also strong in manufacturing and production? 

Admiral ARCHITZEL. The Navy selected General Atomics (GA) in 2004 to design 

and produce the next generation Navy catapult following a competitive prototyping 

effort. Based on successful prototype testing, GA was chosen as the industry partner 

with the best capability to provide this technology. The Navy has worked with GA 

since that time. 

Early in the Program Definition and Risk Reduction phase, the Navy emphasized 

the need for GA to strengthen its manufacturing and production capability. The development of the GA Tupelo, Mississippi manufacturing facility to produce the 

launch motor and power conditioning systems for the System Design and Development (SDD) and production phases resulted, in part, from these discussions. Lessons learned during production of the SDD units have been used to improve processes for ship set manufacturing. The Navy has strongly supported GA’s efforts to 

pursue appropriate industry certifications and increase staffing in engineering, production planning and scheduling. In late 2007, GA and the Navy conducted joint 

production assessment reviews of the EMALS program that resulted in specific recommendations for processes and leadership improvements. Implementation of these 

recommendations resulted in the addition of senior managers with production experience at GA, and improved production planning utilizing a resourced integrated 

master schedule. The Navy and GA continue to work together to provide a manufacturing and production capability using well defined Production Readiness Review 

processes and applicable elements of the Navy’s Flight Safe manufacturing and 

quality assurance standards. 

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