The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a base year contract
valued at $19.8 million, with a total potential value of $47.8 million
over five years, to develop the replacement inertial navigation system
(INS-R) deployed on most Navy combat and support ships. |
INS-R supports the new Navy Assured Positioning Navigation and Timing
(A-PNT) architecture being developed by the Navy which provides increased
navigation accuracy in challenging maritime combat environments. All
Navy ships and submarines will require this level of navigation accuracy
and weapon systems alignment data.
"The INS-R will
be the foundation of the assured position, navigation and timing suite
for virtually all Navy ships," said Todd Leavitt, vice president,
maritime systems business unit, Northrop Grumman. "Our inertial
navigation system will provide very accurate position and attitude information
for the Navy's combat and support ships to help them accomplish their
demanding missions."
Fiber optic gyro sensor development will take place at multiple Northrop
Grumman facilities, while integration into the inertial measuring unit
and incorporation of the navigation algorithms will be carried out in
Charlottesville. The Charlottesville campus currently provides the WSN-7
INS, predecessor to the INS-R, which has been supporting the Navy for
more than 20 years. |