The US Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $110 million production order from late last year for the delivery of FMU-167/B, also known as the Hard Target Void Sensing Fuze.
The Hard Target Void Sensing Fuze is an all-electronic, cockpit programmable, intelligent fuze capable of destroying deeply buried targets. It provides multiple delay arming and detonation times, as well as a void-sensing capability, which allows for precision activation of the fuze.
“Northrop Grumman’s Hard Target Void Sensing Fuze takes the guesswork out of understanding the timing required to reach the target,” said Pat Nolan, vice president, missile products, Northrop Grumman. “We continue to make investments in sophisticated fuzes to help ensure US warfighters and our allies are equipped with the best tools to complete their missions.”
The fuze was originally developed by Orbital ATK, which was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2018 under a $7.8 billion deal. Orbital signed its first full-rate production contract for FMU-167/B in January 2018, as a follow-on order to the low-rate initial production contract awarded in 2016.
The fuze was designed to initiate the warhead at a predetermined location within the target to maximize warhead effects. HTVSF helps overcome intelligence and target data uncertainties to defeat hard and deeply buried targets, and reduces the number of weapons required to achieve target destruction objectives.
Since entering limited production, the FMU-167/B has been tested and evaluated and has demonstrated survivability, reliability and accuracy of detonation in penetrating weapons.
A total of 5,500 fuzes are scheduled to be acquired and intended to be used with both Air Force and Navy penetrator weapons.
