By Geoff Fein
Raytheon [RTN] is preparing to deliver the first of 241 new Mk 54 lightweight torpedoes this month to the U.S. Navy, a company official said.
The first unit is on the production floor right now and going through final assembly and test, Lloyd Beckett, director for undersea weapon systems, told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
As part of that buy, the Navy will be providing Turkey with 151 lightweight torpedoes, he added.
Turkey is Raytheon’s first Mk 54 international customer, Beckett noted.
The entire buy of 241 torpedoes are being built to a newer, upgraded hardware configuration, Beckett added.
Raytheon provides the Mk 54 hardware and the Navy supplies the software, he noted.
While performance specifications for the Mk 54 are classified, Beckett did note that the newer version is a lor more capable.
“In the past, the mission the torpedoes would do is to target enemy submarines, typically in blue water,” he said. “The MK 54 is a lot more capable in the littorals, which is where over the last 10 to 15 years a lot of people see the maritime threat as changing…from blue to brown water. [The Mk 54] has a lot more capability in what a lot of people see as a more current threat environment.”
The upgraded Mk 54 also deals with a lot of obsolescence issues and offers more current and capable processors, Beckett added.
The current contract for the Mk 54 runs out to February 2012, he said.
Beckett said a lot more countries are interested in the Mk 54.
“Because the weapon is fairly versatile in the way you launch it–you don’t need to have a big submarine force if you are a small country with a coastal defense issue that you are concerned about,” he said. “[It’s] relatively cheap to get a launch platform out there for this so there is a lot more interest in this weapon.”
And the Mk 54 can be launched from an airplane, helicopter or surface ship, as well as from a submarine, Beckett added.
“So a lot more countries are interested in the Mk 54. It’s more flexible, capable in the littorals, and relatively a lower cost way to handle some of those defense issues,” he said.
The Navy is been looking to develop the High Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapons Concept (HAAWC), an effort to place a wing kit on a Mk 54 torpedo and drop it from a P-8 at higher altitudes.
Along with Raytheon, a number of companies are working on their own HAAWC effort.
HAAWC will enable a P-8 crew to launch the torpedo from high altitudes, enhancing the survivability of both the aircrew and aircraft by providing safe standoff distance. Without HAAWC, P-3s must descend to a low altitude to deliver the torpedo, (Defense Daily, May 30, 2007).