Organisation

• Organisation & staffing
• Director
• Deputy Director
• Chief Scientist
• Links to NATO agencies

History

• History of NURC

Visitor Information

• Getting to NURC
• Where to stay
• Places of interest

History of NURC

During the late 1950s, the NATO Council emphasized the need for greater scientific cooperation among member nations in response to Soviet scientific achievements. At the same time NATO, in particular its Allied Command Atlantic, was confronted with an increasingly effective Soviet submarine fleet. From these two events came the impetus to create a NATO international scientific research organization to study the fundamental problems of antisubmarine warfare (ASW) and to provide an exchange centre for work already being performed by the different national ASW laboratories.

The institution was founded by members of the United States Naval Research Advisory Committee to Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. The Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic approved the new institution in June 1958. The United States Secretary of Defense provided the necessary funds to get the institution started until NATO multi-national funding could be obtained. NATO accepted Italy's offer of laboratory and other facilities within the La Spezia naval base and the SACLANT ASW Research Centre was established.

The Centre was commissioned on 2 May 1959 by Admiral Jerauld Wright, Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic. It was managed for four years under a SACLANT Deputy by SIRIMAR, an Italian, non-profit, private company, initially overseen by the Raytheon Company and subsequently by the Pennsylvania State University.

In 1988 the research vessel Alliance, the first NATO-owned ship, was delivered to the Centre. That same year, the Centre's name was changed to SACLANT Undersea Research Centre. In 2004 the name was changed to NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC), reflecting a much broader mission and range of products than the orginal Centre. At present the Centre prefers to be known simply as NURC since its activities extend beyond undersea research.