in the absence of barely A few months after the Navy finally receives the S-81 Isaac Peral (April if the deadlines are met), the first of the S-80 class submarines that the Navy will have, in what situation are the three other “brothers” that Navantia is building in its Cartagena shipyards?
The first of these will be the S-82, which will receive the name of Narciso Monturiol, and it should be delivered to the Navy in December 2024, that is to say within two years. But how is its construction progressing? Obviously, neither Navantia nor the Ministry of Defense reports on every step taken in such a long and complex process marked by certain milestones. The last one took place just a year ago, when the manufacture of the sail was finished and in early December it was transported by ship to the shipyard in Cartagena, where it was installed.
Precisely on this date, in December 2021, he reached the Navantia shipyard in Cartagena the so-called sail (called a turret in military jargon), “the last great structure waiting to be assembled” of this second submersible in the 80 series, which weighs 17.5 tons and, when installed on the hull, has dimensions of 11.5 meters long by seven meters high.
The work of assembling said sail in the hull of the submarine, they started after Christmas. Also this year, we worked on Assembly of the five modules that make up the S-82: the first, proel, which houses the system for storing and launching weapons; the second, where the Information and Combat Center is located and is assembled in its upper part to the sail or turret with the various periscopes and sensors, the third, in which the AIP module will be located that allows the S- 82 to navigate submerged for up to three weeks without taking oxygen from the outside, then the fourth, the cofferdam (between the second and third) made of maximum strength steel that would act as a barrier against an external water leak and which includes the lock that would facilitate the access of divers or evacuation, if necessary, and a fifth module, the stern cone.
At the same time, with a view to working inside the complex once assembled, Navantia continued throughout 2022 to tender economic elements for the cabling or insulation of the submarine, towing hooks for the services of the Cartagena shipyard, the connection of parts for the superstructure panels of the three submersibles on standby…
Work is progressing according to plan. and the Naval factory operators are immersed in the welding of tanks, rollers, supports and the pre-assembly of pipes and equipment for the S-82 Narciso Monturiol. Work would also have been carried out throughout 2022 in the first drops and painted, giving way later to the definitive armament of the sections. If all these steps are completed according to plan, the launch of the S-82 could be carried out in early 2023 to be delivered to the Navy a year later after passing all the tests, as has been the case. throughout this year with S-81.
S-83 and S-84
But the Spanish shipyard is not only working on the S-82, but also on the S-83 and S-84, which are to complete the batch of four submarines planned by the Ministry of Defense for Spain.
A) Yes, the S-83, which will be named Cosme García, is to be delivered to the Navy by October 2026 and 16 months later, in February 2028, the S-84, christened Mateo García de los Reyes.
These two submarines would be the first of the series to already integrate the Anaerobic Propulsion System (AIP), which will allow them to generate their own electrical energy and thus sail for weeks without surfacing, offering tactical and stealth capabilities that do not exist today. Unlike conventional submarines, which practically have to come to the surface to perform frequent “snorkeling” operations to recharge their batteries, the S-80 will be able to do so while submerged, so less vulnerable and detectable.
The S-81 and S-82 will be delivered to the Navy without this system, which will be installed on their first big hullin which they will be repackaged.
The five sections of the hull of the S-83 have already been manufactured, and work is underway on the structural elements that will be assembled in each of them. As with the S-84, work is underway on the hull frames, joined by an innovative robotic welding process. The next step is to create the first rings and sections.
Features of the submarine
The S-80 class submarines have a submerged displacement of nearly 3,000 tonnes (2,965 t), a length of 81 meters and a strong hull diameter of 7.3 meters. Its surface speed will be 10 knots and 19 knots underwater. Inside, it houses 180 systems and 60 km of cables.
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The submersible is equipped with a main propulsion system based on a 3,500 kW electric motor (MEP) and a diesel engine consisting of three 1,200 kW generator sets that produce the energy that powers the MEP. For its part, the aforementioned Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system will allow the vessel to stay underwater for up to three weeks. As long as this system is active, the submarine does not need to ascend to dive level to recharge the batteries.
Consoles in the command and control room manage everything from the ship’s propulsion and air conditioning to equipment and weapons that are part of the combat or communications system.
The submarine’s crew is made up of 32 sailors, although it has the capacity to accommodate another eight additional soldiers for, for example, special operations. The high automation of equipment and systems practically halved the crew compared to the S-70 series submarines, although it is a submarine with displacement and complexity much higher.
For its part, the weapon system includes six torpedo tubes and a carrying capacity of 18 weapons (missiles, torpedoes and mines). The cylindrical sonar located in the bow is the primary passive acoustic sensor for submerged operations.
In addition, Navantia and the American Lockheed Martin they are already working to integrate a series of improvements in the sonar systems of the submarine S-81 Isaac Peral With the aim of improving maintain it throughout its life cycle.
These modifications were made when the submarine was last beached in drydock as part of its trials process, and imply an adjustment in the planning of the next milestones of the program. This adjustment will not affect the delivery of the submarine to the Navy scheduled, according to the current schedule, between March and April next year.
Navantia has decided implement these improvements in the mentioned grounding, instead of doing them in the scheduled maintenance periods after delivery, in order to verify its effectiveness during port and sea trials before delivery of the vessel.
The submarine Isaac Peral began sea trials in early July with the first three deep-sea outings in the waters of Cartagena Bay. Just after the start of her second scheduled grounding. Throughout June, July and August, the vessel was out of the water and Navantia technicians carried out adjustments and new tests on board.
After this grounding, sea trials continued in October. In this second phase, the submarine performs the first dives. He was first immersed in static electricity at the periscopic level. Little by little, the degree of requirement of the dives would have increased, while checking the good functioning of the equipment and the systems. This stage culminated with the immersion at maximum depth, the last draft test of the submarine before its delivery to the Navy..
sonar array
The ability to listen S-80 This is one of the most emphasized aspects in the new submarines compared to its predecessors, the S-70, after the integrated combat system and the AIP. The ears of the ship are formed by a set of sonars provided by the companies Lockheed Martin and SAES. Sonar is the most important sensor on a submarine, as it enables enemy detection, surveillance and attack, as well as serving as a support for safe navigation and being vital in ascent maneuvers at periscopic depth. This detection equipment includes a hull sonar, a side sonar, an obstacle and mine detector and another towed.
Lockheed Martin developed hull sonar (the primary passive acoustic sensor for submerged operations); side scan flank sonar; Passive Sonar Range Finder (PRS), which is sonar for passive location and distance measurement; the navigation sonar, for the detection of obstacles and mines, and the interceptor sonar, for the detection of sonar emissions.
For its part, SAES was in charge of the development of two acoustic sensor systems: towed sonar (upgraded variant of their Solarsub long range sonar for submarines) and the own noise and vibration monitoring system ONMSdesigned to detect cavitation and other potential acoustic indiscretions, as well as canceling its own noise, particularly from flank sonar.
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