The Diplomat
The Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, visited Navantia’s shipyard in Cartagena yesterday to take an interest in the development of the latest generation S-80 submarine programme, the first to be designed and built entirely in Spain.
During her visit, Robles learned first-hand about the evolution of the S-80 programme schedule, which is being carried out in compliance with NASA safety standards, a highly complex weapons system comparable, as an engineering challenge, to space vehicles.
The minister, who was received by the president of Navantia, Ricardo Domínguez, highlighted the importance of a project that represents an achievement for the national defence industry, as it guarantees its strategic independence for the country’s defence, as well as the projection of its industry, and defined it as a “solid programme”, in which “Navantia, the Navy and Spain have a lot at stake”.
The S-81 ‘Isaac Peral’, the first of the four submarines that make up the programme destined for the Navy, is currently in the port trials phase, which will continue until March. It will then make its first surface navigation and its first dive is scheduled for June of this year. Delivery to the Navy is scheduled for February 2023.
This week, the ‘Isaac Peral’ successfully completed the propulsion tests on moorings at the Navantia Cartagena facilities, where it was built. This is the sixth safety milestone that a submarine must pass and which allows the operation of the propulsion and the shaft line to be verified with the submarine moored to the quay and with autonomous power supply from its batteries.
In another of its safety milestones, the S-81 was launched last May in a ceremony presided over by His Majesty King Felipe VI.
The S-80 programme positions Navantia internationally as a submarine design authority and marks Spain’s entry into the small number of countries with this capability.ç
The S-80s will be the most advanced conventional (non-nuclear) submarines in the world, with an overall length of 80.8 metres, a diameter of 7.3 metres and a submerged displacement of 3,000 tonnes.
