Compare Equipment
Select up to 4 equipment items to compare their specifications side by side
| Select Equipment | ||||
Overview | ||||
| Image |  |  |  | |
| Name | USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) | Fujian | HMS Queen Elizabeth | |
| Category | Aircraft Carrier | Aircraft Carrier | Aircraft Carrier | |
| Country / Origin | ||||
| Manufacturer | Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding | Jiangnan Shipyard | - | |
| Service Period | 2017 – Present | 2022 – Present | 2017 – Present | |
Technical Specifications | ||||
| Air Wing | - | J-15T, J-15DT, J-35, KJ-600 AEW&C, Z-20F and Z-18 series helicopters | - | |
| Air Wing Capacity | 75+ aircraft typically embarked; design capacity up to ~90 (F/A-18E/F, F-35C, EA-18G, E-2D, MH-60R/S, CMV-22B) | - | - | |
| Aircraft Capacity | - | - | 60 | |
| Aircraft Types | - | - | fixed wing, rotary wing and autonomous vehicles | |
| Arresting Gear | General Atomics Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), water-twister and electromagnetic energy absorption, 3 cross-deck pendants | - | - | |
| Beam M | 40.84 | 76 | 39 | |
| Builder | - | Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co., Changxing Island, Shanghai | - | |
| Catapult System | 4 x General Atomics EMALS electromagnetic launch tracks (replaces C-13 steam catapults) | - | - | |
| Catapult Type | - | Electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), 3 catapults; medium-voltage direct-current shipboard power (reported) | - | |
| Catapults | 4 | 3 | 0 | |
| Commissioned | - | 5 November 2025 at the naval base in Sanya, Hainan | - | |
| Crew | 4540 | - | 679 | |
| Crew Complement | - | ~5,000 including air wing (est.) | - | |
| Displacement Tons | 100000 | 80000 | 80600 | |
| Full Load Displacement | - | ~80,000-85,000 t (est.) | - | |
| Home Port | - | Sanya, Hainan - Southern Theater Command Navy | - | |
| Hull Number | - | 18 | - | |
| Launch System | CATOBAR | CATOBAR | STOVL | |
| Length M | 337 | 316 | 284 | |
| Procurement Cost | ~US$13.3 bn end cost (then-year dollars) against a ~US$10.5 bn initial estimate (reported) | - | - | |
| Propulsion | nuclear | conventional | GE Integrated electric propulsion powered by two Rolls-Royce Marine 36 MW MT30 gas turbine alternators and four 10 MW diesel engines | |
| Radar | Dual Band Radar: AN/SPY-3 X-band multifunction array plus AN/SPY-4 S-band volume-search array (CVN-78 only; later hulls switch to EASR) | - | - | |
| Reactors | 2 x Bechtel A1B pressurised-water reactors, 4 shafts; roughly 150% of Nimitz-class electrical generation and distribution capacity | - | - | |
| Sortie Generation Rate | 160 sorties/day sustained and 270/day surge (design goal, reported); 167 launches and recoveries flown in one day in May 2020 | - | - | |
| Speed Knots | 30 | - | 25 | |
| Weapons Elevators | 11 electromagnetic Advanced Weapons Elevators; final unit turned over to the crew in December 2021 | - | - | |