The S-80 programme, comprising four conventionally powered submarines for the Spanish Navy, is progressing according to schedule, with the diesel engines now installed aboard the third submarine in the class, SPS “Cosme García” (S 83).
The second submarine in the class, SPS “Narciso Monturiol” (S 82), conducted her first static dive on 30 July, in accordance with the schedule of safety milestones established for its trials programme. The dive took place near La Algameca Naval Base in Cartagena. The purpose of this test, conducted by Navantia personnel and the trials crew, is to verify the behaviour of the hull, the flooding of the ballast tanks and the submarine’s static stability ahead of subsequent submerged navigation trials.
The building programme is progressing according to plan on the other two submarines in the series. In July, the third submarine in the class, SPS “Cosme García (S 83), received her diesel engines. Three generator sets, together with the main electric motor and the anaerobic air-independent propulsion (AIP) system, make up the propulsion system of the four S-80 submarines.
The commissioning of the first boat, SPS “Isaac Peral” (S 81) on 30 November 2023, has been a significant milestone for the Spanish Navy (Armada). With the S-80 (Isaac Peral class) submarine, the Spanish Navy envisioned an underwater platform that is capable of carrying out the widest possible range of missions, with anti-surface warfare (ASuW)/land attack, anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and intelligence-gathering and surveillance playing a central role in the navy’s strategy for the 2020s and 2030s. The S-80 submarines are expected to have a significant attention of the international market in the coming years. Their integrated combat system and platform control system, a development by Navantia Sistemas, is described as the most sophisticated combat management systems in the market.
Ricardo Domínguez, chairman of Navantia: “The S-80 programme is progressing in line with the agreed schedule, and the second submarine in the series will be delivered soon.”
Photos: Navantia
He added: “Thanks to the close collaboration between the Ministry of Defence, the Spanish Navy and Navantia, the S-80 programme is already making a significant contribution to the strategic autonomy of Spain’s submarine force and to the technological capabilities of our industrial ecosystem.” To conclude, with the S-80 programme, Navantia, Spain’s premier naval shipbuilder, is about to meet the critical expeditionary requirements of today’s conventional submarines. Spain joins a select group of countries that are able to design and build submarines entirely indigenously, and with the aim to design and build submarines as extremely complex platforms that operate autonomously for long periods of time in hostile environments. The S-80 programme is widely accepted as the greatest industrial and technological challenge ever faced by the Spanish defence industry, and it represents a huge technological leap for Navantia itselves.