Cluster bomb. Credit: Textron
The company's CEO says the decision is part of a move to "be thoughtful about potential human rights implications" of its products.
Northrop Grumman said Thursday that it would walk away from a U.S. government cluster bomb contract as the company moves to distance itself from the deadly weapons commonly associated with civilian casualties.
The contract involves the “testing of cluster munition components” and is “structured to help remove cluster munitions safely,” Northrop CEO Kathy Warden said on her company's quarterly earnings call on Thursday.
The company does not make cluster munitions, which are air or ground-launched bombs that contain submunitions that spread indiscriminately over a wide area. Unexploded weapons from wars decades ago are still killing civilians.
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WNU Editor: This means that there are now no US companies making cluster munitions. Textron, the last U.S. company to make cluster bombs, announced in 2016 that it would quit producing them.
