Alliant Techsystems -- ATK -- said in a recent statement that it had won an AFRL contract worth $1.6 million to produce the proposed new, original-design compact and light warhead.

The AFRL is based at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The BattleAxe program is planned to produce a multi-role compact warhead that can annihilate its targets without severely damaging nearby infrastructure.

ATK said the BattleAxe was planned to destroy small, precise targets such as tanks, other moving vehicles in combat zones and individual buildings in built-up areas.

The company said the planned warhead would be designed to be carried on cheap, miniature cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles that had been adapted to carry such weapons.

"The BattleAxe technology offers the war fighter the capability to defeat an enemy threat with a smaller weapon," said David Riemer, ATK vice president of science and engineering. "This lightweight warhead provides significant operational flexibility and a capability that today only exists in larger weapons."

There are three stages to the BattleAxe warhead development program, and ATK said it had already finished the phase one stage and that it had now confirmed its selection as the "single provider" to carry out phase two.