ATK developing special bomb fuse

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MINNEAPOLIS, April 5 (UPI) -- The engineering and manufacturing development phase for special U.S. military hard-target bomb-sensing fuses will be conducted by ATK of Minnesota.

The contract awarded the company by the Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida is for 37 months and allow ATK to further refine the Hard Target Void Sensing Fuse design and perform all qualification testing necessary to move into production.

The contract is worth $35.8 million.

ATK said the HTVSF is an advanced technology, cockpit-programmable fuse that provides the capability to destroy deeply buried targets that can't be reached by other fusing options. It will provide multiple delay arming and detonation times, as well as a void sensing function, which allows precision activation of the fuse.

The HTVSF is intended for use with all current and future families of 2,000-pound and 5,000-pound air-delivered penetrating weapons.

"ATK has been developing hard-target defeat fusing technology for more than a decade and has taken the best attributes and incorporated them into the HTVSF," said Dave Fine, vice president of the company's Fusing and Warheads unit. "We will deliver a fuse with unprecedented survivability and precision into the hands of our warfighters to allow destruction of high-value, deeply buried targets not reachable with today's fusing options."

Upon successful completion of EMD, ATK expects to transition into low-rate initial production in April 2014.