In recent demonstrations at Yuma Marine Corps Air Station, Arizona, aircraft equipped with eJPALS landed 11.5 miles (18.5 km) from the physical location of the system.
eJPALS is a consolidated version of the ship-based JPALS system and is stored in shipping crates that can aid in landing any JPALS-equipped aircraft, including the Lockheed Martin F-35.
USN RADM (retired) CJ Jaynes, JPALS Executive Technical Advisor at Raytheon Intelligence & Space, said, “When you think about whether you are in the middle of it, waging a war and being in an area, it might not be safe, you can your [eJPALS] System in one place and you can land your aircraft elsewhere and are out of danger.
She added, “We have shown that we actually spent three weeks in Yuma with the Marines doing all kinds of drills with them, including straight approaches, vertical landings, far away at 11 and a half miles, some direct on the same runway. ‘
The eJPALS capability complements the USMC vision of a more distributed operational presence in the Indo-Pacific region. Jaynes told Shephard the company has also seen interest in eJPALS from several countries, the Netherlands, Finland and Japan.
The USN has integrated the system into its carrier-based MQ-25 UAS. Jaynes added that USN and USMC have decided that all future carrier aircraft will be equipped with JPALS.
A study was completed for JPALS on the USN …
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