Fincantieri: WASS Submarine Systems, effectors, sonars and countermeasures
“Although WASS only joined Fincantieri at the beginning of 2025 (following its acquisition from Leonardo), the company has been active in the local underwater business for several decades with a wide product portfolio and a solid market position,” said Andrea Adorni, CEO of today WASS Submarine Systems, originally Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei
“Our product portfolio includes heavy- and light-weight torpedoes, countermeasures, and sonars. WASS is a trusted partner of several international navies, with over 40 years of experience with the Italian Navy. Typically we developed our products in close cooperation with our national customer, who qualifies them, allowing us to offer them on the international market. As a result, our presence is significant with more than 30 navies as customers. Thanks to the flexibility of our products, we equip a wide range of platforms – from small unmanned underwater vehicles to submarines, and from high-speed boats to aircraft carriers,” Adorni explained.
“The key to our product’s success lies in having high-ranking naval forces among our customers. This enables us to provide the market with solid and reliable performance data gathered during the operations at sea. Additionally, our logistics support proposal approach is highly flexible: we do not just provide data analysis and spares, but also support during maintenance sessions and overhauls. We localise production where necessary, to facilitate maintenance activities. This creates long-lasting, strong relationships with our historical customers, and leads to frequent repeat orders.” The operational footprint is based on two sites in Italy, Livorno and Pozzuoli. “We have nearly 500 employees, 35% of them qualified engineers, and in terms of business magnitude, last year we generated around 200 million in revenues.”
“Looking to our product portfolio, in the lightweight torpedo segment, we have two strong products: the Black Arrow and the MU90,” the WASS CEO said. The Black Arrow is the latest version (Mk 4) of the successful WASS A244/S solution with 900 units sold worldwide. It features a new propulsion section and is capable of being launched from airborne platforms. The MU90 NATO-standard torpedo, developed with French partners (under the Eurotorp consortium) to counter the threat of the high-capable Russian Akula-class nuclear attack submarine during the Cold War, has sold around 1,000 units and is now in service with top-tier navies across Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Australia.
“Our solutions are used by around 30 navies worldwide, and we see very promising short-term prospects both in terms of new and current customers, the latter needing to replace inventories, because they are nearing the expiring date.”
“In the HWT segment, our flagship product is the Black Shark Advanced, qualified and in service with the Italian Navy and seven other navies. We have delivered around 130 units, including upgrading kits for existing Black Shark models and entirely new weapons. Recently two additional European navies have selected the Black Shark Advanced which is undergoing the qualification process on their new submarines,” the WASS CEO stated, referring to Norway and Germany under the U212 CD programme. “We are also actively competing for new tenders in the Far East, so we are very well positioned on the market.”
“WASS is also open and always available to continuously update its portfolio, to meet evolving market and operational requirements,” he continued. “Among our latest products is the Black Scorpion – the 5-inch (127 mm) torpedo, designed for shallow water and engagement of asymmetric threats. The Black Scorpion comes from our experience in torpedoes and countermeasures. This very lightweight weapon maintains the same form and fit of our latest countermeasures, but it incorporates all torpedo functionalities, including acoustic head, control and guidance section with software logic, warhead and propulsion. The Black Scorpion can modulate the reaction, being effective against an asymmetric threat, minimizing damage to protected infrastructure. It is the only solution available on the market, and is currently in the final qualification stage, with the first batch set for delivery to the first export customer later in 2025.”
In the countermeasures segment, where around 3,000 units have been sold, WASS offers the combined use of jammers and mobile target emulators, a traditional solution, that has found success on the international market. The company has also qualified a new product for the Italian Navy, the Mobile Jammer and Target Emulator (MJTE). “It combines both functions in one single vehicle, the only system on the market with such features, which gives us strong prospects in this segment,” he said.
In the sonar segment, “together with our national customer, we have developed a couple of towed solutions: one passive for torpedo alerts named Black Snake, and one active for ASW missions named ATAS. The latter is a dual-mode towed sonar for submarine and torpedo detection with advanced threat classification. These are fully qualified and are now offered internationally. They offer important features including light weight, medium frequency, and competitiveness,” he explained. Both have been adopted by the Italian Navy, with at least one export customer for the Black Snake, which EDR On-Line identified as the Qatari Emiri Naval Forces. The ATAS has shown excellent performance in littoral warfare scenarios, according to the WASS CEO, making it attractive for navies operating in shallow waters such as the Baltic and the Middle East regions.
“The Mine Counter-Measures (MCM) sonar is a development that we are running with the Italian Navy to improve MCM capabilities and mine cleaning operations using new technologies and improving human-machine interface (HMI) capabilities. This new sonar features a new electronic steering antenna without moving parts, which increases reliability and improved HMI, which has been developed with the support of our national customer’s crew to implement solutions that can enhance its operational effectiveness. The deployment and recovery system is designed and produced by our sister company Remazel, making this a joint project,” Adorni revealed. While no details were disclosed, Remazel is also supporting WASS in the early-stage development of a recoverable towed array sonar for submarines, where the sister company is focusing on the launch and recovery system.
Looking to the future, WASS Submarine Systems is also developing the Black Shield, a modular underwater system designed to protect sensitive sites such as ports, naval bases and offshore Oil & Gas infrastructures from underwater, surface and aerial threats, both manned and unmanned.
Photoso courtesy Fincantieri
