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Aircraft Carrier Alliance awards sub-contracts

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The alliance responsible for delivering the UK’s Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers is awarding four more sub-contracts worth almost £33.2m.

A total of around £1.5bn worth of sub-contracts have been awarded by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA), which includes Babcock, BAE Systems, Thales UK and the Ministry of Defence, for building the new range of Royal Navy aircraft carriers known as the Queen Elizabeth Class.

Once fully built the 65,000 tonne carriers will be three times the size and double the width of existing ships with a range of 8,000 to 10,000 nautical miles. Once in service the new class of ship will be capable of holding 40 aircraft.

Each ship will rely on six main electrical generators that together can generate 80MW of power.

The first carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, is due to enter service in 2016.

Seven UK suppliers have recently been awarded contracts for providing a number of vital services and parts for the ships, including the massive storage facility near Glasgow where components and equipment for the ships will be securely stored prior to being fitted on to the aircraft carriers.

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