Landing on a U.S. Aircraft Carrier Is About to Get Easier

I'm in awe of how the USN land F/18s at sea, at night in rough weather. When the pilots on ship are sitting down with pop-corn watching night landings in rough seas of their flight team-mates using IFLOLS... watch this video on landing on pitching decks. [0] The real problem is being able to land in all weather consistently. The advantage of Precision Landing Modes (PLM) is described this way:

"“Every aircraft is continually on glideslope with a stable and predictable energy state. Ultimately, this makes landing at the aircraft carrier safer,” said Lt. Greg “Cinder” Blok, CVW-8 Paddles." [1]

Because landing is visual [2] and aided by LSO (Landing Signal Officer) the precision on landing is more variable than using PLM.

“All results showed benefits in touchdown dispersion reduction of more than 50 percent when compared to current landing control techniques,” [3]

References

[0] Video showing USN in the Pacific in rough seas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4HTXBTkcpg

[1] "Fleet Flies Magic Carpet" http://navalaviationnews.navylive.dodlive.mil/2017/03/14/fle...

[2] "IFLOLS—the improved Fresnel lens optical landing system—is a stack of 12 light cells, which produce a single ball-shaped image used by carrier pilots to determine the glideslope as they approach the carrier to land."

[3] Ibid, "Fleet Flies Magic Carpet"