General Atomics was awarded a contract to support the United States Navy’s future CVN 79 aircraft carrier, the John F. Kennedy. The undefinitized contract calls for General Atomics to produce the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) that will be used on the aircraft carrier. The EMALS system is a multi-megawatt electric power system that provides energy storage, power conversion, and a 100,000-horsepower electric motor. AAG allows arrestment of aircraft, lowering manning and maintenance, and provides higher reliability and safety margins. The company was awarded with the prime contract of providing EMALS and AAG systems for a previous aircraft carrier, CVN 78, in June 2009 of which completion is expected by July 2015.
In order to increase their maritime presence, the US Navy has sent the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt into Yemeni waters. USS Theodore and its escort cruiser, USS Normandy, were re-positioned from the Persian Gulf into the Arabian Sea. The nuclear aircraft carrier and guided-missile cruiser will join seven other US warships in the Yemeni waters.
The last Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship (LHA), the USS Peleliu, was decommissioned in March of 2015. The fleet has been getting a makeover and becoming more modern, with the first LHA of the new America-class coming just months before USS Peleliu decommissioned. The “Iron Nickel”, as it was called, was decommissioned in San Diego after nearly 34 years of service. It will be placed in a reserve status in Pearl Harbor, the site of the infamous bombing in 1941. It had a long, decorated history of conducting a wide variety of military operations. “Capable of launching a coordinated air and sea attack from one platform, Peleliu has conducted 17 deployments, 178,051 flight operations, served 57,983 personnel and steamed approximately 1,011,946 nautical miles since being commissioned on May 3, 1980, in Pascagoula, Miss.,” read a March 2015 statement from the service. This class of LHA was the first one to be known as a “big deck” amphibious assault ship, as it was larger than the Iwo-Jima class it succeeded.
