The Air Force’s Hard Target Void Sensing Fuze (HTVSF) program will transition into production later this year, according to service’s chief of air-delivered munitions.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Jansson, program executive officer (PEO) for weapons and director of the armament directorate, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, told Defense Daily Tuesday in a written response to questions that the HTVSF program is currently completing its engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase. HTVSF, which the Air Force has been working on since at least fiscal year 2008, is a sophisticated smart fuse for the service’s bunker-busting munitions. The Air Force Wednesday declined to specify when exactly HTVSF would transition into production.
Jansson said HTVSF represents a marked increase in fuze survivability since it will function in the same environments in which the Air Force’s penetrator weapons are survivable: up to 15,000 pounds per square inch (psi) of reinforced concrete. HTVSF, Jansson said, will also provide desired weapons effects on targets protected by multiple layers of soil or reinforced concrete, or both, via a capability to count layers and voids within a target and detonate in the proper void. Jansson also said HTVSF provides standard time delay and backup timer functions with a higher reliability than current hard target fuzes.
HTVSF provides standard time delay and backup timer functions with a higher reliability than current hard target fuzes, Jansson said. All of these options are selectable from the cockpit (through the penetrator weapon system) with current mission planning and aircraft/weapon systems.
The Air Force had a goal in 2007 of fielding HTVSF on legacy 2,000-pound and 5,000-pound penetrator munitions. The fuze was to be integrated with BLU-109 and BLU-113 penetrator warheads used on 2,000-pound GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and 5,000-pound GBU-28 bunker buster bombs, respectively (Defense Daily; Oct. 19, 2007).
ATK [ATK] in 2011 was awarded a $36 million fixed-price incentive contract for the EMD phase of HTVSF. The 37-month EMD contract began in March 2011, allowing the company to further refine the HTVSF design and perform all qualification testing necessary to move into production. ATK said in 2011 it expected to transition into low-rate initial production (LRIP) in April and then become the primary supplier of HTVSF.
The Defense Department inspector general (DOD IG) said in an August report the HTVSF program manager was effectively preparing the program for the production and deployment phase of the acquisition process because program officials established a strategy and implemented effective controls to acquire, develop and test the program that complied with DoD guidance. As a result, the HTVSF program was within the established baseline parameters for cost, schedule and performance and was on target for the LRIP decision scheduled for third quarter FY ’14.