The "Romeo Romei" submarine was delivered today at the Fincantieri plant in Muggiano (La Spezia), the last in a series of four twin units of the "Todaro" class, type U212A, commissioned to Fincantieri by the Naval Armaments Directorate - NAVARM for the Navy.
The "Romeo Romei" submarine, as its twin unit "Pietro Venuti" delivered to the Italian Navy in July last year by the Muggiano shipyard, is characterized by highly innovative technological solutions, entirely made of non-magnetic material with the application of the most modern silencing techniques for reducing the acoustic signature.
"Romei" has a surface displacement of 1.509 tons, an overall length of 55,9 meters, a maximum diameter of 7 meters and can reach a speed higher than 16 knots in immersion. The crew consists of 27 people.
The "Romei" Submarine
The "Romei" is the 102esimo submarine made with the Muggiano from the 1907, the year in which the "Foca" was launched for the Italian Royal Navy. Since then this yard has always distinguished itself in the construction of naval units, as well as for the Italian Navy, also for foreign Navies (Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark).
The program for the construction of the "Venuti" and "Romei" submarines is the continuation of the one started in the 1994 in cooperation with the German Submarine Consortium, which in the past few years has led to the construction of six units for Germany and two for Italy, the "Todaro" and the "Scirè", delivered by Fincantieri in the 2006 and 2007 respectively and which operate successfully at internal fleet of the Navy.
The "Romei", like the other submarines of the series, is equipped with a silent propulsion system based on fuel cell technology in which the electric energy is produced by the reaction of oxygen and hydrogen, therefore independently of the air, guaranteeing an autonomy in immersion considerably higher than that of conventional battery-powered systems. The unit has an electro-acoustic system that is perfectly integrated in the command and control system and a modern platform control automation system.
