The Spanish Navy's 'Narciso Monturiol' S-82 submarine completes its launch

Almost a month and a half ago, the official launching ceremony of the new submarine "Narciso Monturiol" S-82 was held.

The launching and characteristics of the Spanish submarine 'Narciso Monturiol' S-82
The Spanish Navy shows off the inside of its submarine 'Isaac Peral' in a 360-degree video

The ceremony consisted of cutting the ribbon to activate the traditional bottle-breaking ceremony on the ship's hull, an honor bestowed upon Isabel López, wife of the Chief of the Defence Staff (JEMAD), who served as the submarine's godmother. It was then announced that the launch would take place in a floating dock, a process lasting several hours and to be completed in the following weeks.

This afternoon, Navantia released images of the "Narciso Monturiol" now in the water. It is the second submarine of the "Isaac Peral" class to complete this process. The first was the "Isaac Peral" S-81, which completed its launch on May 7, 2021.

The launching maneuver of the S-82 was carried out with three of the units of the naval train of the Cartagena Military Arsenal, the submarine pushers Y-184, Y-185 and Y-186, commissioned into the Spanish Navy between January and August 2024 and designed by Alcántara Systems to assist the new S-80 type submarines (the Puente de Mando website dedicated an interesting report to them a year ago).

"The second S80-series submarine is ready for port and sea trials," Navantia announced. The Spanish company added: "From now on, the port trials will allow us to test all systems, with various safety milestones such as fuel loading, battery charging, and propulsion testing while moored."

Navantia also highlighted a milestone that Spaniards can be proud of: Spain is "one of the few countries in the world that can design and build its own submarines". Besides Spain, only the United States, Russia, China, Germany, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Sweden, South Korea, and Taiwan can claim the same. All other countries depend on third parties to build their submarines.

The S-82 is the fourth Spanish submarine to bear the name of the Catalan inventor Narciso Monturiol (1819-1885). The previous ones were the A-1 (1917-1934), the S-33 (1972-1977), and the S-35 (1974-1984). Of all of them, only the S-82 was built in Spain.

Like the S-81, the S-82 has six 533 mm torpedo tubes, capable of firing DM2/A4, Black Shark, Mark 48, Spearfish, and Torpedo 2000 heavy torpedoes. These submarines also have missile-launching capabilities. They are scheduled to be armed with the Norwegian-made Naval Strike Missile (NSM) anti-ship missiles.

+ UPDATED 11/18/2025 6:53 PM: The Spanish Navy has just published more photos of the S-82 launching. In some of them, the submarine can be seen out of the water, showing some details of its hull: