What Happened to Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG)?

The Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) was conceived by the U.S. Navy in July 2003 as a revolutionary replacement for the legacy Mark-7 (Mk-7) hydraulic arresting gear system used on Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. Developed by General Atomics, AAG was designed to offer significant advantages, including the ability to recover a broader range of aircraft, from the lightest unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the heaviest manned fighters, while simultaneously reducing maintenance demands and manpower requirements.

However, the development of AAG proved to be far more complex and challenging than initially anticipated. Early in 2012, serious technical problems emerged with the system's 'water twisters,' which are crucial for absorbing energy during an arrestment. These issues stemmed from an underestimation of the forces involved in the three-dimensional flow field within the twisters, leading to internal plate failures. This technical hurdle resulted in substantial delays, pushing back developmental testing by several years and significantly increasing research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) costs. By October 2015, RDT&E costs had soared to $743.5 million, a staggering $571.5 million above the planned costs from the 2005 Acquisition Program Baseline.

Despite these setbacks, testing continued, with the first inert load arrestment occurring in March 2011 and the first fly-in arrestment of an F/A-18E Super Hornet at a land-based site in March 2016. The AAG was eventually deployed on the lead ship of the Ford-class, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), in 2017. Initial operational periods on the Ford were met with scrutiny regarding the system's reliability and availability. However, through continuous hardware and software improvements, AAG's performance has steadily improved.

A key turning point came during the USS Gerald R. Ford's second operational deployment, which began in June 2025 and concluded in May 2026. During the first six months of this deployment, the AAG system achieved an instantaneous operational availability rate of 0.987, nearing the 0.985 threshold defined for system maturity. As of March 2026, the AAG on CVN-78 had successfully recovered 36,863 fixed-wing aircraft since the ship's commissioning in 2017, including 9,634 during its second deployment.

As of September 8, 2026, the AAG is operational on the USS Gerald R. Ford, demonstrating significantly improved performance and reliability. The U.S. Navy, in its April 2026 Modernized Selected Acquisition Report, detailed plans for a major reliability upgrade for AAG on CVN-78, expected to be fielded in fiscal year 2029. This upgrade will include an alternative fourth-engine solution and additional hardware and software enhancements, projected to improve reliability by an order of magnitude. Furthermore, AAG is slated for installation and operational fielding on subsequent Ford-class carriers: the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) in fiscal year 2027, the USS Enterprise (CVN 80) in fiscal year 2031, and the USS Doris Miller (CVN 81) in fiscal year 2032. General Atomics continues to be the primary contractor for AAG production and associated systems.