U.S. Navy awards Northrop Grumman contract for counter-IED tool

Sept. 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy awarded Northrop Grumman a contract for the full-rate production of software-programmable jammers for protection from improvised explosive devices, known as JCREW.

The contract carries a value of $57.7 million and if all contract options are exercised, the value of the award would rise to $505 million, Northrop Grumman said in a news release Tuesday.

"JCREW is a crucial capability that's urgently needed in the field to protect our warfighters," Jeannie Hilger, vice president for communications business at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, said in a statement. "The system developed by Northrop Grumman is exceedingly effective at defeating the innumerable immediate IED threats and designed for rapid updating to defeat new threats.

"The open architecture design allows us to get this critical capability to the warfighter most quickly and to ensure, once deployed, it remains the most potent protection."

The Virginia-based company also received a Navy contract in 2013 to complete its JCREW development. The electronic jammer entered initial low-rate production in 2015.

Northrop Grumman will produce the systems in San Diego and complete the work by August 2022.

JCREW systems are software-programmable jammers for use against device-triggered IEDs. Northrop Grumman developed dismounted, mounted and fixed-site variants of the system.

The Increment One Build One system covered by this award uses an open architecture integrated design for commonality across the variants.