CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Dec. 15, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) a base year contract valued at $19.8 million, with a total potential value of $47.8 million over five years, to develop the replacement inertial navigation system (INS-R) deployed on most Navy combat and support ships.

INS-R supports the new Navy Assured Positioning Navigation and Timing (A-PNT) architecture being developed by the Navy which provides increased navigation accuracy in challenging maritime combat environments. All Navy ships and submarines will require this level of navigation accuracy and weapon systems alignment data.

"The INS-R will be the foundation of the assured position, navigation and timing suite for virtually all Navy ships," said Todd Leavitt, vice president, maritime systems business unit, Northrop Grumman. "Our inertial navigation system will provide very accurate position and attitude information for the Navy's combat and support ships to help them accomplish their demanding missions."

Fiber optic gyro sensor development will take place at multiple Northrop Grumman facilities, while integration into the inertial measuring unit and incorporation of the navigation algorithms will be carried out in Charlottesville. The Charlottesville campus currently provides the WSN-7 INS, predecessor to the INS-R, which has been supporting the Navy for more than 20 years.