SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

• This significant landmark allows the transition into production 
• The Head of NAVANTIA’s Shipyard in Cartagena highlights the success of the approval of the CDR

The Executive Panel of the Ministry of Defense has approved the Critical Design Review (CDR) of the Submarine S-800 class which is being built by NAVANTIA at its shipyard in Cartagena. This constitutes a very important landmark for the future of the Program and of the Shipyard, since it entails finally closing the submarine’s design and makes possible to begin with its construction. In this sense, already in April concluded the enlargement of the submarine’s resistant hull and the 5 sections which make up the submarine are already available for fitting into them their internal structures. 

The approval of the CDR by the Ministry of Defense equally proves the technical feasibility of the submarines’ program. The achievement of this landmark means overcoming finally the design problems which the program suffered in the past. Thus, the Program is again going on, and the Shipyard has made great progresses in its refurbishment, which allows facing the future with optimism.

The Head of the Shipyard and of the Submarine S-80 Program, Admiral José Manuel Sanjurjo Jul, highlighted the importance of the landmark passed. The program for the design and construction of the S-80 submarine is the most complex engineering program which is taking place in Spain. That is why the technical difficulties which have arisen during the program are something normal in the development and implementation of a project which requires of unprecedented technological solutions. A project of these characteristics demands getting into the vanguard of many technologies, which entails taking risks.

Passing the CDR means that the redesign of the submarine is complete, which as a result, presents more length and a bigger displacement, without losing the capabilities which will turn it into a next generation conventional-class submarine. 

The opportunity of having available a domestic design for the construction of submarines entails the technological independence in a key national defense issue. Furthermore, the success of the program presents different faces: on the one hand, the national defense, as what is at play is the survival of the submarine force; on the other, the Spanish technological image; and in third place, the industrial and technological weight which NAVANTIA-Cartagena has for all of the region of Murcia.

About NAVANTIA

NAVANTIA constitutes a world reference in the design, construction and integration of warships with a high-technological content, as well as ship repairs and upgrades. Besides, its activity lines include the design and manufacturing of combat and command and control systems, integrated platform management systems, firing control systems, propulsion engines and the Life Cycle Support for all its products. Although its main activity is in the naval field, NAVANTIA also designs and manufactures systems for the Army and the Air Force. 

NAVANTIA is part of Grupo SEPI, a corporate holding which includes a total of 16 state-owned companies in which it has direct, majority shareholding participations, with a workforce of around 73,000 professionals in 2014; the Spanish state-owned television and radio corporation, Corporación Radiotelevisión Española, which is attached to SEPI, and one public foundation. Equally, SEPI has direct minority shareholdings in a further ten companies, and indirect shareholdings in more than one hundred companies.