American technology company Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC) has completed the critical design review (CDR) phase of the US Navy’s WSN-12 inertial sensor module and will begin production of ten pre-production units.
The WSN-12 is poised to become the primary shipboard inertial navigation system for most US combatant vessels and will be installed on all vessels of the DDG, CG, CVN and SSN classes, according to the company.
The system brings new technology and improved accuracy to these platforms. The inertial sensor module is a primary subsystem of the WSN-12 and includes the inertial sensors, electromechanical equipment supporting them and software to compute the navigation solution.
The shipboard inertial navigation system measures, computes and distributes navigation data to all users, including attitude, velocity and position information.
“Northrop Grumman (…) was able to demonstrate performance in the testing of the engineering development models. We are looking forward to successful integration testing this year and receiving the sensor pre-production units next year,” Captain Jon Garcia, NAVSEA IWS6.0., said.
“Completion of this CDR keeps this program on track to deliver exceptional navigation accuracy to the fleet,” Todd Leavitt, vice president, maritime systems, Northrop Grumman, added.