Spain’s S-80 Submarine Program Back on Track After 3 Years

Navantia’s S-80 New Submarine Enters Fitting Out Phase After Hull Plug and Three Years of Uncertainty

Cruising speed.: this is the current state of the S-80 submarine program that Navantia is building for the Spanish Navy, after its hull was lengthened and after the start of its fitting out. A sea change that seems to finally return the project to calm waters, and marks the end of three years of uncertainty during which the final redesign of the ship was completed.

The S-80 submarine program (the Navy requires four boats, but for now only one is running) jeopardized the continuity of Spain’s underwater component, and the prestige of the Spanish shipbuilding industry. It was intended that Navantia would build submarines alone, for the first time since the previous-generation Scorpene boats were built in cooperation with French shipyards.

Also concerned was the job security of over a thousand people who make up Navantia’s workforce, and another eight thousand who regularly work at its facilities in Cartagena, which gives a good idea of how important it is that the program get the go ahead.

Now, beyond past speculation about the project’s bad luck, construction of the submarine has resumed, and after lengthening the hull – it had to be increased by about eight meters due to the excessive weight of the ship, taking overall length to nearly 80 meters -- the next step is to fit it out with systems and weapons.

Construction work to date was approved by the Critical Design Review after a complete restructuring of the program; also included were the redesign of the submarine and a thorough transformation of the Navantia shipyard. This has allowed the submersible to have a greater range and a better speed without losing any of the operational advantages inherent to the original design: next-generation AIP, land attack capability, high degree of systems integration and of automation.

The company does not want to reveal the program’s next steps, and maintains absolute secrecy about how it will proceed, but the director of the Cartagena shipyard, Agustin Alvarez, expects the first of the S-80 boats, the “Isaac Peral,” be floated in 2020 and handed over to the Spanish navy in 2021.

These dates would guarantee work another ten years, until 2030, since according to the decision taken by the central government, the shipyard will first finish the lead boat, and once completed, will begin the construction of the other three.

Meanwhile, the approval of the overhaul of the S-70 class submarines will allow the Navy to have three submarines on active duty to carry out their missions, although at one point the delay in the S-80 program was such that some doubted whether the submarine branch would survive.

An emergency decision ordering the fifth major overhaul of the three remaining ships allowed their service lives to be extended until the arrival of the “Isaac Peral,” the submarine which must allow Navantia to rejoin the elite group of shipbuilders capable of developing submarines, and the Spanish navy to obtain a vessel with the latest technology.

-ends-

Let's block ads! (Why?)

from Defense Aerospace - Press releases http://ift.tt/2eCk5sH
via Defense