A US Navy’s T-45C Goshawk began Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) performance testing at the Runway Arrested Landing Site (RALS) located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, according to a picture released on August 27.
The new advanced arresting gear system, or AAG, will replace the traditional arresting cable on the Ford-class aircraft carrier flight deck.
This series of testing ensures the new recovery system can support the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) air wing. In April, the trainer aircraft completed 60 arrestments at RALS during a five-day, risk-reduction test period utilized to evaluate AAG system integrated performance.
By the end of this year, the AAG Program is scheduled to release formal approval authorizing T-45 Type Model Series aircraft flight operations on CVN 78.
AAG performance testing comes months after General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced the AAG system successfully executed the first exploratory aircraft barricade arrestment at the Jet Car Track Site with an E-2C+ Hawkeye aircraft. This was the first such test event performed by NAVAIR in more than 20 years.
AAG is a turbo-electric system designed for controlled and reliable deceleration of aircraft. AAG is installed on board Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) along with the GA-EMS Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), which uses electromagnetic technology to launch aircraft from the deck of naval aircraft carriers. Both systems have been successfully tested during at-sea periods on CVN 78, and are currently in production for the future John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) and Enterprise (CVN 80).
According to a recent report, the Navy’s next-generation AAG systems also will work with propeller aircraft: C-2A Greyhound, E-2C Hawkeye and E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, and jet aircraft: F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler to perform flight operations aboard USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78).
