Spanish submarine "Tramontana" will extend service until 2023

The Spanish Navy decided to extend the service life of the Galerna-class Tramontana submarine, which was previously planned to be decommissioned by mid-2022, for a year. This was announced on Thursday, December 9, by Infodefensa, citing representatives of the fleet.

According to them, studies carried out by the Spanish company Navantia and the French Naval Group (formerly DCNS, which was responsible for the design of Galerna-class submarines), showed that extending the service life of the Tramontana diesel-electric submarines is acceptable.

To realize these opportunities, the Tramontana will go to the dock in February 2022 for short-term repairs. After that, the submarine will be able to return to performing tasks at sea until decommissioning. It is now assumed that this will happen a few months after the Spanish fleet takes over the first S-80 class diesel-electric submarines "Isaac Peral". This submarine should be commissioned in February 2023.

Note that "Tramontana" today remains the only submarine at the disposal of the Spanish Navy. Another submarine, the Galerna, has been undergoing overhaul and modernization since 2018: in 2022 it should go to sea trials, after which it will be able to return to the fleet and continue to serve until 2028. The other two submarines of this type, the Sirocco and the Mistral, were decommissioned in 2012 and 2020, respectively.

The Galerna-class submarines, built for the Spanish Navy at the Cartagena shipyard in the first half of the 1980s, are based on the French Agosta-class diesel-electric submarines project. Full displacement - 1760 tons, hull length - 67 meters, width - 6 meters. Surface speed - 12 knots, under water - 20.5 knots. The immersion depth is 300 meters. Cruising range - 8500 miles. Crew - 41 people.

The submarines are equipped with four 533 mm torpedo tubes. In addition to torpedoes, the submarine's arsenal includes mines and SM-39 Exocet anti-ship missiles.