# Spain's S-80 Sub Design Screwup



## tomahawk6 (24 Jun 2013)

Ooops the designers made the sub 100 tons too heavy.



> June 23, 2013: During the construction of a new (S-80) class of submarines in Spain an error was recently discovered. One of the design engineers had made a mistake in calculating the weight of the sub and as the first one was currently built it was nearly a hundred tons too heavy. That means, once submerged, the sub would have a difficult time surfacing. Under some conditions (equipment failure or battle damage) it would not be able to resurface at all.
> 
> Subs are designed to survive leaks, and taking on additional weight (water) while submerged and still be able to resurface. But the unintentional addition of a hundred tons of steel and equipment eliminates much of this margin of safety. The most practical solution is to increase the length of the sub by 5-6 meters (15.5-18.6 feet) thus providing more internal space full of air and buoyancy. This increases the ability of the sub to float. An American firm (Electric Boat) has been hired to help implement this modification, which will delay delivery of the first S-80 sub about two years (to 2017). The modification will increase the cost of the sub about five percent and make the S-80s roomier. That will help crew morale although the taxpayers are none too pleased with this screw up. .
> 
> ...


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## Michael OLeary (24 Jun 2013)

> The S-80s are 71 meters (233 feet) long



Is that before or after the air extensions?


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## Flavus101 (24 Jun 2013)

Michael O'Leary said:
			
		

> Is that before or after the air extensions?



I think it is before the modifications as that is an exact measurement and the article states that they are going to have to lengthen the sub by "5-6 meters" which would make it hard to give an exact measurement.

Wikipedia has given the same dimensions as this article but they do not specifically state whether or not it is the current length or length after modification.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-80-class_submarine

All speculation on my part, hopefully someone who knows a bit more about them will be able to give a more informed answer.


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## a_majoor (25 Jun 2013)

Russian submarines were built with double hulls in order to have large amounts of reserve bouyancy (along with other potential advantages). Pity the designers of the Spanish submarines did not have this option.


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