In this article we develop the direct and inverse scattering theory of the AKNS system \({\varvec{V}}_x=(ik\Sigma +{\mathcal {Q}}(x)){\varvec{V}}\) , where \(\Sigma =\text {diag}(1,0,-1)\) and \({\mathcal {Q}}(x)\) is an off-diagonal \(3\times 3\) \(\varvec{\sigma }\) -focusing potential with entries in \(L^1({\mathbb {R}})\) . We derive the time evolution of the scattering data which, through the inverse scattering transform, lead to the solution of the initial-value problem for a generalized long-wave-short-wave equation. We determine the essential spectrum of the AKNS system rigorously.