@bd popeye @Air Force Brat @TerraN_EmpirE and others, especially detractorsd,...This is not about wanting or needing more carriers. Trump has 11 carrier...plus 10 LHA/LHDs, any of which can now be turned into a very effctive light carrier by embarking with 20 F-35Bs on them.
You cannot just "change out" EMALS for Steam. The two systems are completely different and it would take a MAJOR redesign of the internals of the carrier to do such a thing.
Ford has been doing more and more emats at sea, plus the hundreds of cats on lnd.
It is a new technology and has to be tested and fine tuned. It has the capability of launching aircraft faster and with varying loads more efficiently than steam.
But it does not and will not happen over night.
It is a new, cutting edge technology and so it i also expensive right now.
Trump is worried about cots because that is what he knows and what he is very good at...but when dealing with cutting edge military technology, you have to allow for its development, testing, fine tuning, and practie to develop the SOPs to make sre it operated properly.
One day China will face the same issues.
But to simply say, "swithch out EMALS for Steam" on For is a steatment that would end up costing a whole lot more money and time than simply (IMHO) cotninuing with the end games for EMALS. They are cloe...they have made a lot of launches with all types of loads. There are apparently still some issues with certain loading conditions and perhhaps in certain wind and or sea states. But they will work that out. One has to remain patient with such technologie.
Obama showed the same types of failings with the rail gun. He should have let it go to sea and tested it there so they could continue making progress. It should be there now. We will have to wait for a Presidnt who undertsands these things...or puts in place a team under him who does.
China will maybe launch CV-18 oin what...anoter 4-6 years? They say they will probably wait until the 4th carrier for EMALS, so add another 4 years to that minimum. I promise you US EMALS will be working on the US FOrd calss carriers, probably three of them by that time, and long, long before CV-19 is operational.
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