PHOTOS: Spanish Navy’s S-81 submarine Isaac Peral enters service

Spanish shipbuilder Navantia has commissioned S-81 Isaac Peral submarine to the Spanish Navy in the Naval Base in Cartagena.

During the ceremony, the handover and transfer documentation was signed between Navantia and the Directorate General for Armaments and Material of the Ministry of Defence and from the latter to the Cartagena Arsenal. In addition, the first commander of the unit, Lieutenant Commander Manuel Corral, was sworn in and the ship was presented with its flag.

To remind, Isaac Peral was launched in April 2021.

The S-80 class, one of the most advanced NATO conventional submarines, is capable of carrying out a wide range of missions, including anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering and surveillance among others. They were also designed to incorporate land attack capability in the future.

Isaac Peral is the first of four S-80 class submarines. With this program, Spain becomes one of the few countries that can design and build submarines, extremely complex vessels that must operate autonomously for long periods of time in a hostile environment.

“The success of this program lies mainly in two key factors: the skills of the women and men that have designed and are building these submarines, and the collaboration approach that we have adopted as a working method and that will continue throughout the entire life cycle of the submarines. Trust and cooperation with our customer and with the user of our product are undoubtedly key for Navantia,” Navantia’s Chairman, Ricardo Domínguez, commented.

“We are taking a giant step forward in this programme and today we feel particularly proud of our Navy, heir to the great seafarers of history who transformed the world,” said the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles.

The S-80 submarines have an overall length of 80.8 meters, a diameter of 7.3 meters, and a submerged displacement of around 3,000 tonnes. They include the integrated combat system and platform control system developed by Navantia Sistemas.