Jay Clemens
A Huntington Ingalls Industries division has demonstrated a radar system on the U.S. Navy‘s Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier with the use of a special-instrumented F-18 Super Hornet.
During the test, HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding examined the functionality, alignment and operation of the Precision Aircraft Landing System and its subsystems as the Super Hornet flew within 500 feet of the Ford carrier, the company said Wednesday.
PALS is designed to guide the final approach and landing of an aircraft on the flight deck.
“This test program ensures that the systems are working together as they were designed to work before we take the ship to sea,” said Rolf Bartschi, Newport News vice president of CVN 78 carrier construction.
Newport News also used a dual band radar to test the PALS equipment.
