Spain's new S-82 submarine stays hidden for weeks with advanced stealth technology.

Navantia’s Cartagena shipyard hosted the naming ceremony of the S-82 Narciso Monturiol submarine on October 3, 2025, completing the vessel’s final outfitting phase before its launch and start of harbour and sea trials.

Spain’s Ministry of Defence held the naming ceremony for the S-82 Narciso Monturiol at Navantia’s Cartagena shipyard on October 3, 2025. The submarine, second in the S-80 series, has completed its final outfitting and will next undergo harbour and sea trials to verify performance before delivery to the Spanish Navy.
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The Narciso Monturiol (S-82) will be equipped with Navantia’s BEST-AIP anaerobic propulsion system, capable of producing electrical energy at any depth through bioethanol-based fuel cells, which allows the submarine to remain submerged for weeks without surfacing. (Picture source: Navantia)

Navantia’s shipyard in Cartagena, in the Region of Murcia, hosted on October 3, 2025, the naming ceremony of the S-82 Narciso Monturiol submarine, the second vessel of the S-80 series being built for the Spanish Navy. The event, presided over by the Minister of Defence Margarita Robles, was held beside the facility where the final outfitting of the submarine was completed. This ceremony represented the last major step before the vessel’s launch through a floating dock operation that will take several hours. Once afloat, the S-82 will undergo harbour trials to verify systems integration and performance, followed by sea trials that will include submerged navigation and maximum-depth tests. These phases will confirm the platform’s technical readiness as part of the S-80 submarine programme, one of Spain’s most significant defence and industrial undertakings.

The event gathered senior defence and naval figures, including the Chief of Defence Admiral Teodoro López Calderón, the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral General Antonio Piñeiro Sánchez, and the Secretary of State for Defence Amparo Valcarce. Navantia was represented by Chief Operations Officer Gonzalo Mateo-Guerrero and Director of Submarine Business Agustín Álvarez. The ceremony’s sponsor, Isabel López, spouse of Admiral López Calderón, performed the traditional act of cutting the ribbon and breaking a bottle against the hull, naming the submarine Narciso Monturiol. During her remarks, she expressed her appreciation for being chosen as sponsor, underlining the strong connection between Cartagena, the Navy, and Spain’s tradition of submarine construction. The event included speeches by senior officials, the vessel’s blessing by a naval chaplain, and a group photograph featuring the attending authorities and the keel crew, followed by a reception for participants and shipyard personnel.

Navantia’s management highlighted the S-80 programme as a milestone of national industrial capability. Chief Operations Officer Mateo-Guerrero explained that it contributes directly to defence, sovereignty, and Spain’s technological development, while generating employment and supporting export potential. He detailed the programme’s fourfold significance: industrial, by modernising processes and technologies; strategic, by providing technological advantage and reinforcing autonomy; commercial, by opening opportunities abroad; and defensive, by enhancing intelligence and deterrence capabilities. Director Álvarez thanked the workforce of Navantia’s Cartagena facilities and partner industries for their sustained efforts over the years of design, construction, testing, and certification. The programme currently involves about one hundred participating companies and sustains over 6,000 direct and indirect jobs across Spain, generating an estimated 250 million euros annually in economic impact.

The S-82 Narciso Monturiol is the second submarine in the S-80 class, following the lead vessel Isaac Peral (S-81), which entered service with the Spanish Navy in late 2023. The S-82 will now begin its final stages of testing before handover to the Navy. Once launched, it will undergo several months of verification trials before operational certification. It carries a crew of 32, including officers, petty officers, and sailors, and is capable of embarking up to eight special forces personnel for covert operations. The vessel measures 80.8 metres in length with a diameter of 7.3 metres and a submerged displacement of about 3,000 tonnes. It will  equipped with Navantia’s integrated combat and platform control system and an anaerobic propulsion system known as BEST-AIP, capable of producing electrical energy at any depth through bioethanol-based fuel cells. This propulsion method, derived from aerospace-sector technology, allows the submarine to remain submerged for weeks without surfacing, enhancing its endurance and stealth.

Named after the 19th-century Catalan engineer Narciso Monturiol Estarriol, the S-82 honours one of Spain’s early pioneers in underwater navigation. Monturiol’s 1859 submarine Ictíneo conducted successful submerged demonstrations in Barcelona, remaining underwater for more than two hours at a depth of 20 metres before surfacing safely. His posthumous work, Essay on the Art of Navigating Underwater (1891), is considered foundational in submarine engineering. The Spanish Navy has previously named three other vessels after him, and this fourth honours both his technical legacy and his contribution to Spanish maritime innovation. The choice of his name for the second S-80 submarine reinforces the historical continuity of Spanish submarine development, rooted in Cartagena’s naval industry since the late 19th century.

The S-80 class, also known as the Isaac Peral class, consists of four diesel-electric submarines, Isaac Peral (S-81), Narciso Monturiol (S-82), Cosme García (S-83), and Mateo García de los Reyes (S-84), built by Navantia at Cartagena. Each submarine is designed for multirole operations, including intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), special operations support, anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare, and land-attack missions. The class replaces the Navy’s ageing Galerna-class submarines, which were French-designed Agosta derivatives built in the 1980s. The programme began in 2005, with the first unit entering service in 2023 and the remaining three scheduled for progressive delivery through 2028. The first two submarines will receive their air-independent propulsion systems during major overhauls, while the third and fourth will be delivered with AIP systems installed from the outset.

Each S-80 submarine features six 533 mm torpedo tubes capable of launching heavyweight torpedoes, naval mines, and anti-ship missiles such as the Harpoon, Exocet, or future Naval Strike Missile. They are designed to integrate land-attack cruise missiles if authorised, giving Spain a potential long-range precision-strike capability. With a submerged speed exceeding 19 knots, an operating depth beyond 300 metres, and an endurance of up to 60 days, the class provides extended operational reach for the Spanish Navy. Their design includes acoustic and infrared signature reduction, advanced sonar systems, and an electronic warfare suite developed by Indra. Together, the four submarines will ensure that Spain maintains an autonomous, technologically capable submarine force into the 2030s, securing both national defence needs and continued industrial expertise within Navantia’s Cartagena facilities.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.