RDT&E Project · President's Budget PB2027

EMALS

FY2027 Request
$30.0M
▲ 34% vs FY2026
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Project 4004 — EMALS requests $30.0M in FY2027, 27% of the $111.2M requested for program element 0604112N, up 34% on FY2026. 1 R-2A activity decomposes the request. General Atomics is the largest named R-3 performer at $19.0M, 63% of the project's FY2027 R-3 total.

FY2027 Request
$30.0M
▲ 34% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$22.4M
▲ 190% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$7.7M
Prior year
Project detail

What project 4004 buys

The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) is an advanced technology system developed as part of, and integrated on new FORD Class Carrier ships, beginning with CVN 78. EMALS provides better control of applied forces, both peak and transient dynamic loads, improved reliability and maintainability, increased operational availability, and reduced operator and maintainer workload. The EMALS program will undergo future system improvements to address safety, obsolescence, and reliability, to include but not limited to Automated software testing, Electrical Isolation, Advancing Additive at Large Scale to Address Readiness and Sustainment (AALSTARS), Block Switch Controller (BSC) Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), Software Support Activity (SSA), Autosuspends, Maintenance Laptop, Catapult Status Dashboard (CSD), Windows 10 End of Life Transition, and EMALS Server & PC-104 Obsolescence, and other emergent requirements. Automated software testing development provides for rapid, repeatable tests, resulting in higher quality software. Automated testing enables rapid diagnosis of system faults and decreases troubleshooting response time for the fleet. EMALS is a software intensive system and highly dependent on reliable software operation. The readiness and mission benefits include the ability to provide the fleet with affordable, quality, well-tested software capable of launching and recovering aircraft on Ford-Class carriers. Development of Electrical Isolation provides for EMALS capabilities to continue launch operations while being able to isolate catapults for regular maintenance, in turn improving maintenance cycle times. This provides readiness and mission benefits to enable continued operations and increases system mission capability. Implementing the AALSTARS initiative will demonstrate alternative manufacturing methods of select EMALS components. This will reduce manufacturing lead time and costs for highly complex, long lead time items. Developing BSC CPLD provides additional space on a critical control card to allow for future firmware and logic updates in order to ensure timely functionality and to support future changes. This also addresses a known obsolescence issue.

R-3 lines of work
  • Product Development
  • Support
  • Test and Evaluation
  • Management Services
Funding trajectory

Project 4004 funding, FY2025–FY2031

Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.

2507.7FY25ACTUAL22.4FY26ENACTED30.0FY27REQUEST21.7FY287.7FY291.6FY301.7FY31
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
Fiscal YearEstimate TypeAmount ($M)
FY2025Actual7.7
FY2026Enacted22.4
FY2027Request30.0
FY2028Outyear21.7
FY2029Outyear7.7
FY2030Outyear1.6
FY2031Outyear1.7
Inside the project

1 accomplishment / planned program

The R-2A exhibit — the only level of the budget that describes work that has not happened yet. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only, no five-year plan. Each describes FY2027 work in enough detail to have its own page; the rest are shown here in full. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.

FY2025 actual$7.7M
FY2026 enacted$22.4M
FY2027 request$30.0M

To continue Primary Hardware (HW) Development for Electrical Isolation and conduct the Critical Design Review (CDR) and Test Readiness Review (TRR); the development of additive manufacturing capability on select EMALS components via the Advancing Additive at Large Scale to Address Readiness and Sustainment (AALSTARS) project; and the…

Read the FY2027 plan →
Who's building it

Named performers on project 4004

Performers named in the R-3 exhibit under this project. Share is of the project's whole FY2027 R-3 total — the same denominator the program-element split uses, so the two read on one scale and will not sum to 100% when unnamed or government work is in the mix. Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations.

General Atomics
$19.0M · 63%
NAWCAD Lakehurst
$10.9M · 37%