In recent years, several European navies have been launching programs to renew their intelligence-gathering assets based on surface platforms. This trend is reflected in the initiatives undertaken by the navies of Germany, Poland, and Sweden — to which Spain now appears poised to join, following one of the latest decisions by the Council of Ministers, granting approval to move forward with a new development phase for an intelligence ship for the Spanish Navy.
Since its incorporation in mid-1992 — after a brief period of service with the navy of the former German Democratic Republic — the Alerta (A-111) has served as the main intelligence-gathering vessel in the Spanish Navy, even though it is officially designated as an “auxiliary ship.” However, with more than three decades of service, the Navy now requires a replacement aligned with the latest technological advancements and trends in the field.
Against this backdrop, the Spanish Navy has identified the need for a new platform of this type, which will be developed, designed, and built by Navantia, leveraging the base design of the Maritime Action Ship (Buque de Acción Marítima – BAM) class. This class has been expanding its original mission set through new variants, such as the future anti-submarine BAMs.
For this reason, in one of its most recent decisions, the Council of Ministers of Spain authorized “…the execution order for the definition or pre-engineering phase prior to the design and construction of an Intelligence Ship,” for an amount of €14,000,000.00, with the objective of “…carrying out an initial definition phase to enable the subsequent design and construction of an intelligence vessel incorporating new operational features and advances. In this phase, the scope of the ship will be defined, mitigating uncertainties prior to its construction.”
As of now, and considering the highly sensitive role and functions this vessel is expected to fulfill, few details have been disclosed beyond the fact that its design will be based on the BAM platform. It is, however, presumed that it will feature advanced systems for combat management, signal collection, and processing, enabling it to perform the broad range of missions encompassed by SIGINT operations.
Finally, in reference to the recent Council of Ministers’ decision, Navantia stated: “…This phase consists of carrying out engineering studies through which a naval platform will be defined, capable of intelligence gathering and electronic warfare operations in the maritime environment,” adding that its “…intelligence system stems from the Santiago Program, which seeks to modernize the systems used to collect and analyze signal and emission data from potential threats across the three branches of the armed forces.”
Images used for illustrative purposes – The Maritime Action Ship (BAM) will serve as the base design for the future SIGINT vessel of the Spanish Navy.
You may also be interested in: Spain expands the Hürjet Program with the purchase of up to 45 new trainers to equip the Air and Space Force
