US Navy Places $29.5m Sole-Source Order for Low-Hazard Flexible Linear Shaped Charges

On 17 July 2026 the U.S. Navy awarded Ensign-Bickford Aerospace and Defense a $29,521,000 sole-source contract for low-hazard flexible linear shaped charges, energetic cutting devices that sever and form metal. Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division placed the five-year, firm-fixed-price order, citing a single responsible source under 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(1).

Technical Summary

The award, contract N0016426DJR96, is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) vehicle with no option periods and a completion date of July 2031. Fiscal 2025 defense procurement funds of $671,642 were obligated at award, with the balance to follow on individual delivery orders. Work will be performed at Ensign-Bickford's Graham, Kentucky facility, and Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division, Crane, Indiana, is the contracting activity. The requirement was not competed: the Navy invoked 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(1), the only-one-responsible-source authority.

A flexible linear shaped charge (FLSC) is a continuous explosive core enclosed in a seamless, malleable metal sheath drawn to an inverted V, or chevron, cross-section. On initiation the detonation collapses the sheath along its length and projects a continuous metallic cutting jet, an application of the Munroe effect in a linear rather than point-focused form. Because the sheath is ductile, the charge can be bent to follow a cut line around complex geometry, which is what separates it from a rigid linear shaped charge.

Detonation velocities for flexible linear shaped charge cores typically run from 6,000 to over 8,000 metres per second, and a correctly sized charge will cleanly sever steel, aluminium alloy and composite structural sections in a single linear cut. ISC technical assessment, open sources

Analysis of Effects

Cutting performance is governed by the core load, expressed in grains of explosive per foot (or grams per metre), the sheath metal and the standoff. Copper, lead, aluminium and silver sheaths are all used, with copper favoured where jet density and penetration matter. The phrase ‘cut and form metal’ in the notice points to two roles: severance, cleanly parting a structural member, and explosive forming or metalworking, where the linear charge shapes or shears plate. Core loads for FLSC products span a wide band: PacSci EMC, a representative manufacturer, quotes roughly 8 grains per foot for light severance up to 800 or more grains per foot for heavy structural cuts, held to a core-load tolerance of about plus or minus 20 per cent. The specific loadings on this contract are not disclosed.

The ‘low hazard’ label in the citation matters to the ammunition technician. It signals a design and packaging intent toward the lower end of the explosives hazard spectrum, consistent with insensitive-munitions objectives and with a favourable hazard division for storage and transport. FLSC natures are used across flight termination, launch-vehicle stage separation, payload fairing release and aircrew emergency egress, and in the land and maritime domains for controlled cutting and breaching by combat engineers and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams. A Navy buy through NSWC Crane, the service’s principal energetics and ordnance engineering centre, is consistent with a platform-integrated egress or separation application, a deployable cutting store, or both.

Personnel and Safety Considerations

For handling and storage the governing parameters are the explosive fill, the net explosive quantity (NEQ) per item and per packaged configuration, and the assigned hazard division and compatibility group (HD and CG). None of these is stated in the contract notice. FLSC cores are commonly loaded with RDX, HMX, HNS or PETN depending on the thermal and sensitivity requirement, and each carries a different sensitiveness and thermal-stability profile. Until the fill, NEQ and HD/CG are confirmed against the design safety case and, for UK readers, mapped to DSA 03.OME and the relevant hazard classification, any storage or transport figure would be an assumption. The device is a cutting charge, not a fragmenting munition, but the linear jet is lethal at the cut line and demands the standoff, orientation and exclusion distances specified in its approved procedure.

Data Gaps

Key parameters absent from the open-source award: the explosive core material and core load in grains per foot; the NEQ per item and per packaged unit; the assigned hazard division and compatibility group; the specific end application, whether platform-integrated separation or egress, a deployable EOD or engineer cutting store, or both; the total ceiling value and quantity across the five-year IDIQ; and the precise basis for the low-hazard designation. These are ordinary redactions for an ordnance procurement and are flagged, not treated as confirmed findings.

Corrections & updates welcome. If you hold open-source data that refines or corrects any parameter in this article, please contact [email protected] citing the specific claim and your source. Verified corrections will be incorporated and credited in the revision history. AI-assisted technical assessment based on open-source material. Not a formal intelligence product.