(Note: When I first hit the publish button I got a message saying my session had expired and the login box appeared. I did so and hit publish but apparently the system published a not quite finished and unedited version. And deleted other formatting and the title pic. Hopefully I’ve correct it all and it now seems to appear as intended, but for those who saw the original and weird/incomplete version show up in their alerts my apologies)
Trump as we know has weird obsessions. Windmills for example. Another is steam -at least when it comes to Naval Aviation. As aircraft, mainly jets came along and were too heavy to launch from the deck of a carrier on their own catapult systems were developed to get them up to launch speed before they ran out of deck. Hence the development of the steam catapult which did the job, albeit not without issues which I’ll get to. The new Ford Class carriers changed to an Electromagnetic catapult system and Trump has been against the new technology from the start.
Did I say ‘against?’ Trump HATES the new catapults. As far as he’s concerned old-fashioned STEAM was ‘perfect’ and those who touted the benefits of the new launch system were idiots. In fact Trump demanded a switch back to steam catapults but the the Ford entered service using the Electromagnetic system and the next two ships in the new class also moved on from the old steam system. However, according to the Wall Street Journal Trump has ordered a return to the old-timey steam catapult launch systems! Trump has ordered the Navy to tear out the new EALS and replace it with the old steam launch system. The Navy has fought Trump on this for (ten) years. It would cost untold billions for one thing. But the fact is that while it took a while to sort out the kinks with the new system it’s been working beautifully.
Trump doesn’t care what statistics the Navy provides regarding a sustained ability to launch/recover more aircraft, or the significantly reduced annual maintenance costs (around $100 million a year savings) or the five hundred fewer sailors needed to service one of the old fashioned steam systems. Ten years ago he heard some sailor praise steam catapults and as far as he was concerned that was it. The Navy should by god use steam. Period. As for that sailor I’d be willing to bet he never rode an aircraft down the deck and into the air, much less at night. It’s too bad he didn’t talk to those who do because they could present a quite different perspective.
There are two Naval Aviators from my hometown, both a few years older than me but at times growing up and when at age 26 I was trying to get into Marine OCS and become one myself I learned enough to become quite interested in Naval Aviation. One of them flew F=14 Tomcats, and left the service when his initial commitment was up. The other started out in smaller A-4 Skyhawks which were starting to be phased out. He’d switch to helicopters but he too had to learn carrier operations during training.
So here’s some things for you to ponder if you think ‘Well, maybe Trump might be right for once. Steam was used for many decades and worked well so why change to something more complicated?’ The answer to that question is that while as I said it took a lot of effort to get the Electromagnetic system reliable it’s actually simpler and costs less to maintain as I already noted. It takes up less space both in the system itself and saving five hundred crew needed to maintain an old steam system. It can launch significantly more aircraft per hour than the hold steam system.
I want you to think about something else. Fixed wing aircraft (mostly jets) launch from a carrier at only fifteen knots above stall speed. The person flying one has to carefully nurse that sucker up into the air while airspeed increases to a point where the thing flies and maneuvers normally. With the old steam system leaks, both in the catapults themselves or in the lines filled with steam that ran throughout the ship many was the time when it had to be rationed! Imagine a rough night with rain and heavy seas. Even without leaks or other problems just driving the ship hard enough to get twenty knots of wind down the deck to launch into would tax the old system.
Now imagine being in an aircraft being hooked up for launch and seeing one of the deck crew holding up a sign. One saying for example +8. THAT meant steam was being rationed and instead of being launched at fifteen knots above stall speed the gal/gal flying the plane was going to have to make do with only 8 knots to work with! Even on a calm day launch that was no picnic. The plain fact is Naval Aviation offered more ways to die than most can imagine in their wildest dreams. It may look cool, like a ballet with aircraft in the movies but in reality it’s a business with almost no margin for error. Sometimes the old steam catapults would simply lose pressure and an aircraft would simply fall off the front end of the deck, often the crew wouldn’t even have a chance to attempt the human cannonball thing (ejection) and even if they did at odd angles their chute might not deploy. Or they’d hit the water hard and off-angle and get tangled up and drown. The point is (and especially at night and or in bad weather) the “Angel” helicopter might not be able to find, much less rescue them.
The new system greatly reduces the chances of the kinds of things they had to regularly with the old steam catapults. Do you think for one second Trump cares? He might actually have been told some of what I just wrote but he stuck his neck out years ago and made a BFD about steam and being Trump he’s not about to admit he didn’t know WTF he was talking about. So, needing a distraction he’s shooting off his mouth again.
It seems Trump’s desire to tear out the EALS that have already been installed has been successfully fought off by the Navy. However, the fourth Ford Class carrier (and those after) will, according to this new order from Trump have to have steam. From the outside and to the untrained eye there doesn’t appear to be that much difference between the Nimitz class carriers that are now being replaced by the Ford class. Inside it’s a different story. All that extra space needed to accommodate the old steam systems (and that extra five hundred crew needed to maintain it) has been repurposed. There’s no estimate on just how many billions of dollars (not to mention time doing the redesign) will be wasted.
While I’ve been writing this Arizona Senator Mark Kelley, a carrier Naval Aviator was asked about this and not that it’s difficult he made Trump look really stupid. Kelly isn’t just a Naval Aviator with a bunch of deployments (including combat) under his belt and a former Astronaut, he’s also an engineer with a Masters. HE knows what the hell he’s talking about, and he ridiculed Trump’s own credentials (or rather lack thereof) to go messing around making decisions about military systems.
Trump claims the new system isn’t nearly as good and is ‘too complex.’ As I’ve explained and as all manner of objective evidence proves the opposite is true. Maybe someone should paint a mural on the side of a tractor trailer truck of a windmill powering a steam boiler and circle the WH with it. Just to tweek Trump. Let’s just hope the Navy can find a way to delay implementation of this dumbass order to go back to steam until he’s gone.
This has been more of an opinion piece but one I felt needed to be put out there. I urge you to read the linked WSJ article. Naval Aviation is a complex business and the lessons in every NATOPS (Naval Aviation Training and Operating Procedures Standardization) has lessons and rules written in blood. Trump doesn’t even know business so he should stay the hell out of things like ship and weapon design.
“Ten years ago he heard some sailor praise steam catapults and as far as he was concerned that was it.”
That’s certainly a possible explanation (and I’m sure without some painstaking research we will probably never know the real reason), but if I were a reporter covering this story, I would try to answer two questions: 1. What company made the old steam-powered catapults? — and 2. Has this company made any financial contributions to Trump, his campaigns, his children, or one of his many companies? Answers to those questions would probably go a long way toward explaining his devotion to steam…