​A new milestone has been reached in Spanish industry and technology. 17 years after starting the project, the new S-80 ‘Isaac Peral’ submarine was launched on Thursday. This is the first submarine designed and built entirely in Spain and one of the most advanced in the world. The launch ceremony, which took place in the Navantia shipyard at the Arsenal de Cartagena and was presided over by the Spanish royal family, represents the start of the final stages of preparation for this submarine, which will begin sea trials in early 2022 and be handed over to the Spanish Navy a year later. 

Only nine countries in the world currently have the capacity to design and build submarines: the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea. With the new S-81 ‘Isaac Peral’, Spain has joined this elite group of countries and further consolidated its globally strategic position. 

The S-81 is the first submarine in the S-80 series, which will be joined in future years by other submarines named after other pioneers in this branch of navigation: the S-82 ‘Narciso Monturiol’ in 2024; the S-83 ‘Cosme García’ in 2026; and the S-84 ‘Mateo García de los Reyes’ in 2028. 

The S-80 will be the most advanced conventional submarines in the world, with a total length of 80.8 metres, a diameter of 7.3 metres and a submerged displacement of approximately 3,000 tonnes. It will be able to remain submerged for two weeks thanks to a revolutionary air-independent propulsion (AIP) system that produces water and electricity at any depth via a fuel cell system in which hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) are combined. 

The new submarines will also need a smaller crew. They can be operated by 32 sailors, compared with the 65 needed by their predecessors - the S-70 class submarines built in partnership with France in the 1970s. 

Development of this new submarine project involves some 100 companies from 11 different autonomous regions of Spain, creating direct, indirect and induced jobs for more than 6,000 people (some 2,000 in the Region of Murcia alone) and an annual impact on Spanish GDP in excess of 250 million euros. According to Navantia (the Spanish State company engaged in civilian and military shipbuilding), an additional 1.4 euros are injected into the Spanish economy for every direct euro of GDP. Furthermore, development of the S-80 also has an impact on other Navantia centres, such as its facility in Cadiz, where the combat and torpedo launch control systems have been developed, and the turbine factory in Ferrol, which builds various components. 

Its sizeable export potential cannot be ignored. Their technological developments make them attractive to other countries, such as India, whose navy has an ongoing procurement programme for six submarines that Navantia hopes to win with the S-80. The Spanish State shipbuilding company hopes to achieve the same with its F-100 frigates, through which an initial contract from the Ministry of Defence worth some 2.4 billion euros generated additional contracts worth another 2 billion with such countries as Norway and Australia.