Navantia shipyards in Cartagena hosts naming ceremony for the new S-82 ‘Narciso Monturiol’ submarine.

Navantia shipyards in Cartagena hosted the launching of the S-82 submarine ‘Narciso Monturiol’ today, October 3 in a ceremony presided over by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles.

The event was a solemn ceremony, sponsored by Isabel López, wife of the Chief of the Defense Staff (JEMAD), Admiral General Teodoro López Calderón. In addition to the Minister of Defense and the JEMAD, the Chief of Staff of the Spanish Navy (AJEMA), Admiral General Antonio Piñeiro, as well as other authorities from the institutional, political, and business spheres also attended the ceremony.

“The submarine is the deterrent element par excellence: discreet and lethal. Its mere presence contributes to sea control and denies the opponent freedom of navigation. The Submarine Force is a capability the Spanish Navy has maintained for over a hundred years, and is now exponentially enhanced with the S-80 submarines”, added the Chief of Staff of the Navy.

Wrapping up the ceremony, the Minister of Defense said that this program “is the continuation of a path of success, hard work, progress, and future — aimed at strengthening our Navy, Cartagena, the Region of Murcia, and, above all, Spain”.

This submarine, second in the S-80 series of four, is named after Narciso Monturiol, a Spanish engineer, intellectual, politician, painter, and inventor, born in Figueres (Girona) in 1819. He is recognised, along with Cosme García and Isaac Peral, as one of the pioneers of global submarine navigation.