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Abstract
The world of combat aviation is changing rapidly, and the next generation of aviation technology is extending the boundary of mixed manned and unmanned air operations. Drones have moved far beyond their initial role as decoy units and have long been performing operational duties in the areas of surveillance and ground attack. In the near future, drones will be performing operational roles in air-to-air combat. These unmanned aircraft are not the highly expensive and heavy manned fighter aircraft of the present, but light, agile and relative cheap “loyal wingmen”. This opens up enormous potential for naval aviation as this technology acts as a force multiplier to existing aviation capability.
Low voltage electromagnetic catapult technology has the capability of being integrated with the power systems of a large number of existing platforms. Such catapults could add fixed wing fighter capability to such platforms and enabling the rapid launch of multiple combat drones. Advances in drone technology open up the possibility that the linear catapult track could also be used for recovery. This paper examines how advances in EM catapult technology allow it to be applied, not only to full aircraft carriers, but also to the wide range of large deck assault vessels that currently have limited or no fixed wing capability thereby massively increasing the options open to fleet commanders.