RSSIn 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 9001:2008 and AQAP-2110 Ed. 3
