The Subsea Development Program (PROSUB) foresees the construction of 4 S-BR conventional submarines whose project was developed by the French state-owned company DCNS, now called Naval Group, and built under the supervision of the Navy of the Brazil. After the conventional submarines, the Navy will build the first Submarine with Nuclear Propulsion (SN-BR).
Riachuelo, with electric diesel propulsion, is the first of the four submarines being built simultaneously in the Steel Structures Manufacturing Unit-UFEM / Nuclep, in Rio de Janeiro. It was transported to EBN-Shipyard and Naval Base of the Navy, in Itaguaí, where it will be finished and launched to sea, probably in June. He’s practically ready. Riachuelo is expected to be commissioned as early as 2018, after undergoing rigorous testing.
This new stage of PROSUB-submarine manufacturing project, demystifies the fear of project paralysis due to the crisis in the country’s economy. The completion of Riachuelo is a milestone for Brazilian technology in the development of a project of this magnitude. Brazil with this accomplishment is bound to be the seventh power in the world to have the knowhow to manufacture submarines and the third nation in the world to design and build submarines with nuclear propulsion.
Micromazza has entered into this technological challenge by providing the most complex valves for conventional submarines and working hard to provide the critical and non-critical valves for the nuclear-powered submarine design that will be managed by the Navy and not by the Naval Group.
This experience has been challenging for Micromazza not only because of the complexity of the project, but also because of the assigned military secrecy.