The US division of the British defence technology company, QinetiQ, will provide hardware and software for critical aspects of the future US Navy Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier, the USS Doris Miller (CVN 81).
Selected by General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, the primary contractor, QinetiQ has been tasked to deliver control hardware and software for the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG).
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The General Atomics deal dates back to 8 June 2023, when US Naval Air Systems Command tasked the contractor to produce, manufacture, engineering and support to the Doris Miller in a contract modification.
In February 2024, the prime also tested the EMALS aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), utilising “dead load” vehicles designed to simulate various aircraft weights. Testing involved launching multiple large, steel four-wheeled vehicles weighing up to 80,000 pounds from EMALS catapults installed on CVN 79’s flight deck.
Meanwhile, QinetiQ’s contract reflects a multi-year production task to update, procure, assemble, and test launch these aspects of the future carrier.
“Our ongoing commitment to excellence ensures that the Navy is equipped with the best systems to accomplish its mission with increased reliability, improved operational efficiencies, and significantly decreased lifecycle costs,” said Christopher Forrest, executive vice president of Advanced Robotics and Mission Solutions at QinetiQ US.
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By GlobalDataFord-class operations today
It is not surprising that QinetiQ was entrusted with this work; QinetiQ is already well-established in the Ford-class supplier ecosystem. The company has proven its services through its work on the Navy’s previous three carriers – CVNs 78, 79 and 80. The company’s work goes back more than ten years.
Since then, however, a Ford-class Carrier Strike Group, led by CVN 78, operated in the Eastern Mediterranean in response to the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023. Its presence in the region remains a testament to the carrier’s global significance.
Ultimately, the carrier was intended as a deterrent to state and non-state actors that could potentially involve themselves. Although, this policy now seems to be breaking down as the US armed forces have increased their ballistic missile defence on land and sea as the conflict threatens to spill over into Lebanon.
For reference, the Ford-class remains the largest aircraft carriers in the world with a displacement of 100,000 tonnes. China’s newly constructed Fujian, which comes in as the third largest carrier class in service around the world, comes only behind the 100,000+ tonnage of the US Navy’s Nimitz-class carriers and ahead of the next largest, the UK’s Queen Elizabeth-class, which displace around 70,000 tonnes.
