FRIDAY FOTO (August 30, 2019)

Calm Before the Storm.

(U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael Singley)

Seaman Francisco Romero operates a catapult as an EA-18G Growler is launched off the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in the Arabian Sea, on August 27, 2019. The Growler is an electronic attack aircraft.  A variant of Boeing’s F-18F Super Hornet jet fighter, the Growler provides tactical communications jamming and suppression of enemy air defenses.

Click here to see a brief video from the pilot’s point of view of an F/A-18 Hornet’s launch from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. This longer video (9 minutes) shows another Hornet launch plus the catapult preparation and launch of an EA-6B Prowler, the Growler’s predecessor. Here’s a CBS piece on the Abraham Lincoln after the flat top completed a four-year, $4 billion makeover in 2017.

Currently, all U.S. aircraft carriers use a steam-powered catapult accelerate planes and some drones (See FRIDAY FOTO August 23, 2019) off the flight deck.  The Navy is replacing steam power with an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launching System (EMALS) on the next generation of carriers, known as the Ford class. However, there were problems with EMALS on the first ship of the class, the USS Gerald Ford, prompting President Donald Trump to call for a return to steam power.