Air Force Cluster Bombs : Aerojet Ordnance Gets $236.9-Million Contract

Aerojet Ordnance Co., a Tustin munitions maker, said Tuesday that it has won a one-year, $236.9-million contract--its largest single-year agreement--to produce 9,275 cluster bombs for the Air Force.

Parts of the bombs, called combined effects munition (CEM) systems, will be produced and assembled in Aerojet’s Downey and Chino plants, said Edward L. Smith, the company’s vice president of communications.

“We anticipate increases in the work force, but we don’t know how many jobs that will be,” Smith said. Most of the expansion of Aerojet’s work force over the next five years, he said, will not be related directly to the contract but to a companywide effort to add technical, scientific and engineering personnel.

GenCorp Subsidiary

Aerojet Ordnance, a division of Aerojet General Corp. in La Jolla, is a manufacturer of medium-caliber ammunition for the Army and the Air Force and employs about 1,100 people in four Southern California facilities and 200 workers in a Tennessee plant. Aerojet General, in turn, is a subsidiary of GenCorp of Akron, Ohio, the old General Tire and Rubber.

The Aerojet Ordnance division has been working with the Air Force for the last two years to design and develop the cluster bombs. Under previous agreements, more than 300 CEM systems have been manufactured and delivered to the Air Force, Smith said.

While the new contract is for one year, Smith said that such contracts are normally renewed “to satisfy the full war reserve requirements of the Air Force” and that Aerojet anticipates further one-year, or possibly multiple-year, contracts to continue the project. The “potential” payout for the program could reach $5 billion, he said.

Component Manufacturers

Aerojet will start producing CEM systems under the new contract next month and will eventually increase production to 1,000 cluster bombs a month until the contract is fulfilled. The contract calls for delivery between October, 1986, and September, 1987.

Much of the CEM components will come from suppliers and subcontractors in 26 other states. They will receive about $140 million, or 59%, of the contract price, Smith said.

The completed parts will be shipped for final assembly to the Kansas Army Ammunition Plant, a government-owned, Aerojet-operated facility in Parsons, Kan.

Each CEM system is an 8-foot-long dispenser that contains 202 so-called bomblets.