Northrop Grumman will begin manufacturing 10 pre-production units of an inertial navigation system for the U.S. Navy after completing the critical design review phase of the technology.
Todd Leavitt, vice president of maritime systems at Northrop, said in a statement published Wednesday that completing the CDR allows the program for the WSN-12 inertial sensor module to progress toward providing navigation accuracy to the Navy’s fleet.
Several U.S. combatant ships will use WSN-12 as their primary shipboard inertial navigation system, which is expected to calculate and distribute navigation data such as attitude, velocity and position information to all users.
The system will be installed on the Arleigh Burke, Ticonderoga, Nimitz and Virginia vessel classes.