The U.S. Navy awarded San Diego-based General Atomics a $52 million order for advanced arresting gear equipment.

The Navy will use the equipment to test the technology.

The advanced arresting gear will be a departure for aircraft carriers. Fighter jets will continue to land on carrier decks as usual, catching hold of a cable. The mechanism pulling on the cable, however, will be based on an electric motor rather than the standard Mk-7 hydraulic arresting gear.

The new type of arresting gear will go on the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which is set to be christened in November. Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries plans to deliver the ship to the Navy in 2016.

The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Md., placed the order for the advanced arresting gear. General Atomics will perform 65 percent of the work in San Diego.

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