Congressman Chris Smith said today’s formal ribbon cutting for the Electro-magnetic Aircraft Launching System (EMALS) marks the start of a new era for both the U.S. Navy and the local community.

    “With EMALs you have successfully reinvented the wheel,” Smith told the crowd, which included base officials and workers who are building the EMALS project. Smith pointed out that the U.S. reliance on aircraft carriers will continue for many years, and that the work to move from steam-powered catapult systems to electromagnetic systems shows the innovation and technical prowess of the Lakehurst workforce.

    “Today we see the beginnings of a huge leap in aircraft carrier technology,” Smith said. “This day is historic for future generations of our carrier fleets, which are the heart of the U.S. Navy. The aircraft carrier remains the single-most effective means of projecting power and acting decisively in a crisis or conflict.”

    After saving Lakehurst and its estimated 3,000 jobs by removing it from the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), Smith helped steer new research and development missions to the base, focusing on the EMALS project in particular. In the 2002 defense bill Smith successfully persuaded the House Armed Services Committee to declare its support of the project, and the following year the Pentagon agreed to budget $20.6 million for EMALS.

    “It was timely to get EMALS in the 2004 budget, more than a year ahead of the 2005 BRAC,” Smith said. “I believe EMALS was one of the key reasons Lakehurst was not closed. This type of carrier research is done nowhere else but here.”

    The Navy wants EMALS because it is expected to significantly reduce launch time and increase aircraft sortie rates. Officials believe EMALS would put less stress on the airframe of launched aircraft, and thus will save money in repairs and lengthen an aircraft’s service life. Additionally, it is designed to reduce the number of crew needed to operate and maintain the catapult and related systems aboard the carrier, also reducing operating costs throughout the 50 year service life of a carrier.

    Smith said EMALS, and soon the advanced arresting gear—the next carrier aircraft landing system—will combine to give the Navy a continuing presence in the former Lakehurst Navy Air Engineering Station, which last month became part of America’s only Army-Navy-Air Force combined installation.

    “That technology will be designed, built and maintained here by Navy workers in Ocean County, N.J.,” Smith said. “This mission is critical for the nation and will be a key function of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for many years ahead.”


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