Northrop awarded $178 million contract for energetics manufacturing expansion

Energetics manufacturing is set to increase at Allegany Ballistics Laboratory’s Naval Industrial Reserve Ordnance Plant, thanks to a $178 million contract awarded to Northrop Grumman by Naval Sea Systems Command.

A focus within the contract award is the construction of a new modular energetics facility.

“The investment will increase rocket motor energetics and inert processing and builds on Northrop Grumman’s proven performance to quickly scale using advanced manufacturing techniques and digital transformation,” according to a Northrop Grumman news release.

Northrop was awarded part of the $178 million in late September, according to company spokesperson Jarrod Krull.

Additional proposals for further plant expansion efforts will follow in the next couple of years, Krull added.

“The expansion will add to Northrop Grumman’s own investment in rocket motors and increase resiliency by doubling the capacity of the defense supply chain and ensure production capacity to meet the growing demand of solid-rocket motors and warheads on time and at affordable scale,” the news release said.