

MU 90 ALWT : Reliability Demonstration Programme successfully completed
In
October 2006, the French and Italian Navies gave official approval to
end the MU90 Torpedo
Reliability
Demonstration Programme.The
MU90 is today recognized as the most performing LWT existing ever.
The
MU90 ALWT project is the result of the strong will of the French and Italian
Navies to merge their
domestic developments. The MU90 project could not have been successful
without the French and Italian
political will of unifying their operational requirements, of sharing
the development costs and of deploying
in the project the top experts of the two countries.
The
MU90 features innovative and unique-of-its-kind advanced technologies
applied to underwater weapons.
Of great operational ambitions, the technical and manufacturing challenges
for the torpedo designers
to
overcome have been significantly thought. The aim was to develop a weapon
fully compliant with the modern and complex anti-submarine operational
needs and achieve a weapon suitable for global application. The design
and industrial difficulties have been mitigated thanks to synergic and
complementary efforts deployed by the French and Italian technical staff.
The development of the weapon was completed in 1997, followed by extensive
TECHEVAL and OPEVAL phases. The torpedo mass production started in 2001
and today more than 1000 MU90 rounds have been manufactured for the French,
the Italian and a number of NATO and Allied Navies.
While
the torpedo mass production was progressing, an extensive MU90 Torpedo
Reliability Demonstration Programme (TRDP) was launched to further maximize
the torpedo reliability. The TRPD has been successfully completed in October
2006 after having demonstrated the MU90 reliability has reached incomparable
levels. To achieve that, a set of improvements for the weapon have been
developed, the BLOCK1 mod. kit. The MU90 (BLOCK1) has been subject to
24 month-long extensive laboratory and sea testing including more than
15 live torpedo exercise firings successfully carried out by the French
and Italian Navies from different type of platforms and performed at the
extremes of the torpedo operational capabilities. Satisfied with the outstanding
results, the French and Italian Navies have finally accepted the MU90
BLOCK1 mod. kit that is to be applied to all MU90 torpedoes. All MU90
customers will enjoy the implementation of the BLOCK1 mod. Kit into their
torpedo inventory.
About
EUROTORP
EUROTORP
(GEIE) is a consortium established in 1993 with the purpose of creating
a world's leadership in the field of Light Weight Torpedo(LWT) and associated
systems by merging the complementary skills and capabilities of three
major industrial groups: Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei (a Finmeccanica
Company), DCN International and THALES. EUROTORP is fully responsible
for: Commercial management / Program management / Technical coordination
/ Industrial coordination during manufacturing and is certified ISO 9001/2000
& AQAP 2110.


