The Spanish Armed Forces’ S-80 program continues to generate good response, particularly for the S-81 Isaac Peral. More than twenty years after the start of the program, the Spanish Navy will receive the first of the four submarines this Thursday. “It represents a significant technological leap,” the commander told LA RAZÓN. Among all the advantages is the ability to carry Tomahawk missiles, a powerful weapon that, however Spain has refused to buy from the United States, even though it would increase the submarine’s performance.
They are the most powerful weapons equipped on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers of the United States Navy. These are rockets that work thanks to GPS technology and whose error tolerance is only ten meters. But they are not only characterized by their precision, they are also very difficult to intercept and have excellent flight ability at low altitudes.
Manufactured by the American company Raytheon Technologies, Tomahawk missiles also typically carry warheads of up to 454 kilos and are designed to fly at low altitudes at speeds of up to 885 kilometers per hour.
Each of them is more than six meters long, weighs more than 1,500 kilos and has a reach Targets at a distance of up to 1,600 kilometers. Likewise, in its nuclear version, it can reach enemy targets 2,500 kilometers away.
Spain even negotiated with the United States to purchase a batch of Tomahawks for use in its F-100 frigates and the new S-80 submersibles, but The Navy initially gave up on installing the weapons. Currently only the US and UK use these missiles.
In 2009, the PSOE informed the Pentagon that it had abandoned the purchase and there are currently no plans to re-request it. It was the Defense Minister of the Zapatero government, Carme Chacón, who announced her rejection of the purchase agreed to by her predecessor José Bono a few years earlier. The reason for this was that the armed forces had “other priorities” at the same time as the financial and economic crisis.