Quiet Electric Drive - sometimes called by the misnomer Quiet Electronic Drive - is an ONR

Office of Naval Research

The Office of Naval Research , headquartered in Arlington, Virginia , is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S...

-sponsored program to develop technologies for silent maritime propulsion for the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

.

According to the ONR, QED's role is to "address the Navy's operational gaps in surface ship and submarine maneuverability and acoustic signature

Acoustic signature

Acoustic signature is used to describe a combination of acoustic emissions of ships and submarines.-Contributing factors:The acoustic signature is made up of a number of individual elements...

. Quiet Electric Drives, or QEDs, are quiet, efficient and power dense. The primary objective of QED is demonstrating the utility of the motor as an actuator to obtain signature reduction performance while increasing tactical speed

Tactical speed

Tactical speed is the maximum speed of a submarine at which it is possible to remain undetected, whilst still having the capability of detecting other ships....

 and maneuverability".

Its existence is known particularly via a 2005 court case in which four ethnic Chinese suspects have been accused of attempting to smuggle data from a U.S. defense contractor. An FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

 affidavit

Affidavit

An affidavit is a written sworn statement of fact voluntarily made by an affiant or deponent under an oath or affirmation administered by a person authorized to do so by law. Such statement is witnessed as to the authenticity of the affiant's signature by a taker of oaths, such as a notary public...

 stated QED to be "an extremely sensitive project ... considered by the Navy to be significant military equipment and therefore banned for export to countries specifically denied by the U.S. State Department

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

, including the PRC

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

 (China)". This classified information has been transferred by Chi Mak

Chi Mak

Chi Mak is a naturalized American citizen who worked as an engineer for California-based defense contractor Power Paragon, a part of L-3 Communications. In 2007, Mak was found guilty of conspiring to export sensitive defense technology to China.Mak's defense was that he thought there was nothing...

a naturalized Chinese citizen of the US to the PRC via espionage.