Jane Edwards
Northrop Grumman has received a potential $50.1 million contract to manufacture nose shell assemblies and transducer arrays for the U.S. Navy‘s MK 48 torpedo.
The company said Thursday it will produce 45 torpedo components under the contract’s base term worth approximately $9.6 million.
Northrop would build up to 180 additional components over five years if the service branch exercises three additional options valued at approximately $40.5 million in the contract, which also covers engineering support services and spare parts.
The transducer array is a sensor that works to detect and guide the torpedo to its target.
Work will take place at Northrop’s facility in Maryland, Ultra Electronics Ocean Systems’ facility in Massachusetts and other supplier locations.
Installation of the assemblies into completed torpedoes will be carried out at Naval Undersea Warfare Center Keyport in Washington.
Northrop has provided at least 3,000 MK 48 and 500 MK 50 torpedoes to the Navy and has begun development work on the MK 54 acoustic nose array for the service branch.
