Greece releases RFI for new heavy torpedoes (!)

A U-212 of the Italian Navy at bay during reloading of Black Shark torpedoes

The Hellenic Navy released a Request for Information Letter asking various companies for technical insight at aqcuiring heavy class 533 mm torpedoes and integrating them to the U-214 and U-209 AIP (Okeanos) submarines.

The general essential requirements of the new torpedo are the following:

a) Dual purpose (against surface targets and submarines)

b) Active/Passive Homing

c) Use of copper or fiber optics wire which can also be used for remote control

d) Proximity and Impact detonated warhead

e) Launching depth more than 400 meters (comment Defencegreece: that is quite interesting and implies the true maximum diving depth of U-214 submarines which is more than 1200 ft, quite impressive for a conventional submarine)

f) Automatically set Velocity and depth during terminal attack phase (comment Defencegreece:another interesting feature which can give the Hellenic submarines various attack profiles)

g) Maximum speed over 50 kt

h) range over 50km

i) ability to identify and spoof modern ECM countermeasures

j) special measures for the protection of the submarine

k) the training torpedo variant should have 50 cycles of recharging and sensors for analyzing the trajectory path and Noise Maker

Every participating company should also list and analyse all the proposed procedures to integrate them in the ISUS 90-15 and ISUS 90-46 Combat System which equip the four (4) U-214 and one (1) U-209 AIP submarines of the Hellenic navy fleet.

PS: It was about time the Hellenic Navy equip itself with advanced weaponry after a decade of inactivity