Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) has received an initial order from the U.S. Navy to manufacture all-electronic fuze technology that can function with general purpose bombs.
Production orders for FMU-139D/B could reach more than $400M within the next four years as part of a previously awarded contract, the company said Thursday.
FMU-139D/B is designed to have an operational life of 300 seconds and is equipped with environmental sensing, automatic retard deceleration sampling, internal self-check and dual independent launch signaling features.
The device is intended to replace the FMU-143s, FMU-152 and FMU-139C/B fuze models.
Orbital ATK, which Northrop acquired last year, developed the fuze through a $426M contract awarded in 2015. The Navy issued full-rate production authorization for the program earlier this year.
Manufacturing work will take place at Northrop’s Allegany Ballistics Laboratory in Rocket Center, W. Va.
