As Navantia celebrates more than a century of submarine construction at its Cartagena factory, tensions between the shipbuilder and the Navy engineers are beginning to heat up as a result of the company announcement that deliveries of three S-80 submarines under construction are delayed for another year.
The Navy will now have to wait until 2026 to receive the ‘Narciso Monturiol’ due to Navantia’s problems in completing the work.
All this not only affects the profit and loss and the prestige of the Cartagena shipyard, but also rather more importantly, the Spanish Navy, which must face its responsibilities and obligations for even longer than expected with a very reduced submarine capacity.
The Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, said in Cartagena during a recent visit that the delays in the construction of the S-82 ‘Narciso Monturiol’ “exceeded what was reasonable.”
