Spanish Navy
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The Spanish Navy (in Spanish, Armada Española) is the maritime arm of the Spanish Military. See also: Structure of the Spanish Navy in the 21st century.
[edit] History
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[edit] Prehistoric Iberia
See also Prehistoric Spain
[edit] The Iberian Peninsula during the Iberian Celtic Period (Including the Greeks and Carthaginian Colonies)
See also Celtiberian script, celtiberians, iberians, Phoenicia, Ancient Greece and Carthage
[edit] Hispania during the Roman Empire (133 BC- 476 AD)
See also Hispania and Ancient Rome
[edit] Visigothic Hispania (5th–8th centuries)
See also Visigoth
[edit] Northern Christian and Southern Islamic Hispania (8th–15th centuries)
It should be noted that the founding kingdoms of Spain, Aragon and Castile, had possessed strong naval capacities from as early as the 13th century. Aragon used this capacity to help build an empire in the Mediterranean and Castile conducted expeditions against the Moors (capture of Cadiz, 1232) and even several major battles against English fleets in support of France during the 100 Years War.
[edit] The Spanish Navy since the establishment of Spain as a Modern State (15th century)
The modern Spanish Armada's roots go back to the discovery of America, when two Caravels and one Nao commanded by Admiral Christopher Columbus arrived in what today is called America in 1492. Later, Hernán Cortés, Pizarro and other conquistadores were carried by the Armada to America. It should be noted that the founding kingdoms of Spain, Aragon and Castile, had possessed strong naval capacities from as early as the 13th century. Aragon used this capacity to help build an empire in the Mediterranean and Castile conducted expeditions against the Moors (capture of Cadiz, 1232) and even several major battles against English fleets in support of France during the 100 Years War. In the 15th century Castile used its naval capacities to enter into a race of exploration with Portugal that inaugarated the European Age of Discovery. With the navies of both Aragon and Castile, as with their successor, the Armada, the Barbary pirates were a constant concern.
[edit] Spain under the Habsburgs (16th–17th centuries)
Among the most famous Armada Admirals was Álvaro de Bazán, "Almirante del Mar Océano" (Admiral of the Ocean Sea), a title granted to Columbus by King Ferdinand. De Bazán helped conduct the Battle of Lepanto against the Ottoman Empire in 1571. The Infantería de Marina (Navy Infantry), the world's oldest marine force (established in 1537, drawing from the Compañías Viejas del Mar de Nápoles), played a prominent role in this battle.
The Spanish Armada's defeat in 1588 did not mark a decline in the Spanish navy but actually led to a thorough reform and recovery of its dominance. Despite the heavy loss of ships and men off the Irish coast, the years that followed proved the zenith of the Spanish navy's mastery of the oceans. Following the repulse of an English Armada in 1589 the Spanish navy won a number of victories and successfully dealt with buccaneering against the Spanish treasure fleets and attacks upon its Caribbean territories.
It was the Dutch rebels that were to be the nemesis of Spanish sea power. Their commanders, selected for skill and experience, not aristocratic credentials, had inflicted serious defeats upon the Spanish navy from as early as the 1570s, and increasingly damaged Spanish and Portuguese shipping, especially from the 1620s. Most notable of these attacks was the Battle of Gibraltar in 1607 in which smaller, nimbler Dutch vessels surprised large ocean going galleons in the confines of the bay, with devastating results. Such attacks weakened and then finally ended the Armada's dominance with the destruction of a large troop carrying fleet at the Battle of the Downs in 1639, the last time the Spanish navy would challenge for the control of the English Channel. Further defeats were inflicted by the Dutch in the 1640s. Sensing the decline of Spanish power the English dictator, Oliver Cromwell, initiated the Anglo-Spanish War (1654). The newly rebuilt English navy, greatly refined in technique by recent hard fought battles with the Dutch, inflicted several major defeats on the increasingly antiquated Armada in the Carribean, and helped England seize the island of Jamaica. This was to be the beginning of further losses of islands to other powers in the Caribbean, that were used as bases for attacks on Spanish American towns and shipping by pirates and privateers. The government of the later Spanish Habsburgs, having exhausted Spain in massive war efforts, showed no sign of its predecessors' vigorous reforming abilities, nor had the funds to do so, and so the once proud navy was eclipsed by its Dutch, English and French counterparts and even lost some major warships to their privateers in a grim struggle for survival. Nevertheless the Armada maintained the links between Spain and its territories, sometimes with the help of the Dutch navy, in the later part of the part of the 17th century.
[edit] The Enlightenment: Spain under the Bourbons (18th century)
During the eighteenth century the new Bourbon monarchy brought with it French expertise which modernised the Armada and its administration. A "Secretaría" (Ministry) of the Army and Navy was established in 1714. However it was a distant third as the French and British navies vied for dominance. Nevertheless the Armada still played an indispensable role in important military successes as in the War of Polish Succession, the War of Jenkins' Ear and the American War of Independence, and continued carrying out its regular duties such as patrolling coastlines, and protecting convoys, with the help of a large fleet of frigates.
[edit] Spain in the nineteenth century (The end of a world Empire)
The nineteenth century was the nadir of the Spanish Armada's history. The Armada suffered two disastrous defeats. On June 29 1805, it was defeated in the Battle of Trafalgar. Of the 15 ships, only 4 regained Cadiz. More importantly the one sided battle which pitted 33 ships of the Franco-Spanish squadron against 27 British ships exposed the futility of using inexperienced crews against the highly experienced British sailors. Many of the Spanish crews were land soldiers, recently press-ganged beggars and peasants, with many not having even fired a cannon on board a rolling ship, in contrast to the British crews who had seen many actions by this time. This had come about by the loss of many experienced sailors to an epidemic of the yellow fever in 1802-04, as well as being a traditional cost saving measure. Compounding this was the distinct lack of trust and respect for the French admiral among the resentful Spanish captains. Nelson's daring tactics took full advantage of the skill disparities of the opposing squadrons. The Armada's remaining 45 ships of the line (of about 150 vessels in total) remained at port until it joined the anti-Napoleonic coalition in 1808.
Then on July 3 1898, Admiral Cervera's fault ridden squadron was annihilated in a heroic but clearly hopeless charge to get past a blockade by a powerful American squadron off Cuba, during the Spanish-American war. This result was ultimately more due to the thoroughly corrupt, arrogant and inept state the Spanish government and colonial administration had fallen into at this time, than to any failings of the sailors and commanders themselves, who acquitted themselves with honour, as was acknowledged by their American counterparts.
Throughout its history the Spanish navy has achieved numerous goals, from the transportation of gold and silver from the colonies in America, to the maintenance of the Spanish Empire in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. In its heyday it contributed enormously to the geographical knowledge of the world, the opening of ocean routes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the suppression of piracy and smuggling. It also contributed to the early development of ocean going vessels, most famously the galleon, and played an important part in the development the submarine.
[edit] Modern navy (20th and 21st Centuries)
Image:Naval Jack of Spain.svg In modern times, the Armada Española is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and has taken part in many coalition peacekeeping operations, from SFOR to Haiti. The Armada is considered the sixth strongest navy of the world.
Today's Armada is a modern navy with ships such as an aircraft carrier, modern frigates (F-100 class) with the Aegis combat system, F-80 frigates, submarines, amphibious ships and plenty of other smaller ships, including an oceanographic research ship. The Spanish Navy Infantry (Marines), known in Spanish as the Infantería de Marina, is also part of the Armada.
The Armada's special operations and unconventional warfare capability is embodied in its newly-formed Naval Special Warfare Command (Mando de Guerra Naval Especial), which is under the direct control of the Admiral of the Fleet. Two units operate under this command:
- The Special Operations Unit (Unidad de Operaciones Especiales (UOE)): Special operations unit trained in combat diving, coastal infiltration, shipboarding, direct action and special reconnaissance.
- The Combat Diver Unit (Unidad de Buceadores de Combate (UEBC)): Specialist combat diving unit trained in underwater demolitions.
Armada officers recive their education at the Spanish Naval Academy (ENM). They are recruited in two different ways:
- Militar de Complemento: Similar to the U.S. ROTC program, students are college graduates who enroll the Navy. They spend a year at the Naval Academy and then are commissioned as Ensigns. This path is becoming more and more prestigious.
- Militar de Carrera: Students spend five years at the ENM, receiving a university degree-equivalent upon graduation.
[edit] Ranks
The officer ranks of the Spanish Navy are as follows below, (for a comparison with other NATO ranks, see Ranks and Insignia of NATO).
[edit] Ship classes
[edit] Aircraft carriers
- Principe de Asturias class (1 in service)
- R-11 Principe de Asturias (1988)
[edit] Frigates
- F-100 Alvaro de Bazán class (4 in service)
- F-101 Alvaro de Bazán (2002)
- F-102 Juan de Borbón (2003)
- F-103 Blas de Lezo (2004)
- F-104 Méndez Núñez (2006)
- F-80 Santa María class (6 in service)
- F-81 Santa María (1986)
- F-82 Victoria (1987)
- F-83 Numancia (1988)
- F-84 Reina Sofía (1990)
- F-85 Navarra (1994)
- F-86 Canarias (1995)
- F-70 Baleares class (1 in service)
- F-74 Asturias (1975)
[edit] Submarines
- S-70 Galerna class (4 in service)
- S-71 Galerna (1983)
- S-72 Siroco (1983)
- S-73 Mistral (1985)
- S-74 Tramontana (1985)
[edit] Amphibious ships
- LPD L-50 Galicia class (2 in service)
- L-51 Galicia (1998)
- L-52 Castilla (2000)
- LST L-40 Pizarro class (2 in service)
- L-41 Hernán Cortes (1995) (ex-LST-1197 Harland County/USA 1971)
- L-42 Pizarro (1994) (ex-LST-1196 Barnstable County/USA 1971)
[edit] Patrol crafts
- P-75 Descubierta class (5 in service)
- P-75 Descubierta (2000) (ex-corvette F31 Descubierta 1978-2000)
- P-76 Infanta Elena (2004) (ex-corvette F33 Infanta Elena 1980-2004)
- P-77 Infanta Cristina (2004) (ex-corvette F34 Infanta Cristina 1980-2004)
- P-78 Cazadora (2004) (ex-corvette F35 Cazadora 1981-2004)
- P-79 Vencedora (2004) (ex-corvette F36 Vencedora 1982-2004)
- P-70 Serviola class (4 in service)
- P-71 Serviola (1991)
- P-72 Centinela (1991)
- P-73 Vigía (1992)
- P-74 Atalaya (1992)
- P-60 Chirleu class (7 in service)
- P-61 Chirleu (1992)
- P-62 Alborán (1997)
- P-63 Arnomendi (2000)
- P-64 Tarifa (2004)
- P-80 Toralla class (2 in service)
- P-81 Toralla (1987)
- P-82 Formentor (1988)
- P-30 Conejera class (4 in service)
- P-31 Conejera (1981)
- P-32 Dragonera (1981)
- P-33 Espalmador (1982)
- P-34 Alcanada (1982)
- P-20 Anaga class (9 in service)
- P-21 Anaga (1980)
- P-22 Tagomago (1982)
- P-23 Marola (1981)
- P-24 Mouro (1981)
- P-25 Grosa (1981)
- P-26 Medas (1981)
- P-27 Izaro (1981)
- P-28 Tabarca (1981)
- P-30 Bergantín (1982)
- P-10 Barceló class (5 in service)
- P-11 Barceló (1976)
- P-12 Laya (1976)
- P-14 Ordóñez (1977)
- P-15 Acevedo (1977)
- P-16 Candido Pérez (1977)
- P-110 Aresa class (2 in service)
- P-111 (1975)
- P-114 (1979)
- P-201 Cabo Fradera class (1 in service)
- P-201 Cabo Fradera (1963)
[edit] Minesweepers
- MCM support ship M-10 Descubierta Modified class (1 in service)
- M-11 Diana (2000) (ex-corvette F32 Diana 1979-2000)
- Minehunters M-30 Segura class (6 in service)
- M-31 Segura (1999)
- M-32 Sella (1999)
- M-33 Tambre (2000)
- M-34 Turia (2000)
- M-35 Duero (2004)
- M-36 Tajo (2005)
[edit] Auxiliary ships
- Replenishment ship (1 in service)
- A-14 Patiño (1995)
- Fleet oiler (1 in service)
- A-11 Marques de la Ensenada (1991)
- Logistic ship (1 in service)
- A-01 Contramaestre Casado (1983) (ex-Thanassis K 1953)
- Cargo ships (2 in service)
- A-04 Martín Posadillo (2000) (ex-Cala Portals 1973)
- A-05 El camino español (1999) (ex-Araguary 1984)
- EW support ship (1 in service)
- A-111 Alerta (1992) (ex-Jasmund/GDR 1982)
- Submarine rescue ship (1 in service)
- A-20 Neptuno (1989) (ex-Amapola 1975)
- Salvage tug (1 in service)
- A-101 Mar Caribe (1975)
- Fleet tugs (2 in service)
- A-53 La Graña
- A-51 Mahón
- Polar research ships (2 in service)
- A-33 Hespérides (1991)
- A-52 Las Palmas (1981)
- Hydrographic ships (7 in service)
- A-23 Antares (1974)
- A-24 Rigel (1974)
- A-31 Malaspina (1975)
- A-32 Tofiño (1975)
- A-91 Astrolabio
- A-92 Escandallo
- A-93 Sextante
- Coastal water tankers (2 in service)
- A-65 Marinero Jarana
- A-66 Condestable Zaragoza
- Sail training ship (1 in service)
- A-71 Juan Sebastián Elcano (1928)
- Training ships (9 in service)
- A-72 Arosa
- A-74 La Graciosa
- A-75 Sisargas
- A-76 Giralda
- A-77 Sálvora
- A-82 Guardiamarina Salas
- A-83 Guardiamarina Godínez
- A-84 Guardiamarina Rull
- A-85 Guardiamarina Chereguini
[edit] Future ships
[edit] Aircraft carriers
- Buque de Proyección Estratégica L-61 Juan Carlos I class
- L-61 Juan Carlos I (ordered, commission 2008)
[edit] Frigates
- F-100 Alvaro de Bazán class
- F-105 (ordered, commission 2009)
[edit] Submarines
- S-80 class (4 ordered)
- S-81 (ordered, commission 2011)
- S-82 (ordered, commission 2012)
- S-83 (ordered, commission 2013)
- S-84 (ordered, commission 2014)
[edit] Patrol crafts
- Buque de Accion Maritima (BAM) class (4 ordered), large 2,500 tonnes
[edit] Auxiliary ships
- Replenishment ship
- A-15 Cantabria (ordered, commission 2008)
- Hydrographic ship
- Buque de Accion Maritima (BAM) modified class (ordered, commission 2015)
- EW support ship
- Buque de Accion Maritima (BAM) modified class (ordered, commission 2015)
[edit] Retired ships
[edit] Frigates
- F-70 Baleares class (4 decommissioned)
- F-71 Baleares (1973-2005)
- F-72 Andalucía (1974-2005)
- F-73 Cataluña (1975-2004)
- F-75 Extremadura (1976-2006)
[edit] Submarines
- A-0 (1 decommissioned)
- A-0 Isaac Peral (1917-1930)
- A class F/Laurenti class (3 decommissioned)
- A-1 Narciso Monturiol (1917-1934)
- A-2 Cosme Garcia (1917-1931)
- A-3 - (1917-1932)
- B class Holland F-105 class (6 decommissioned)
- B-1 (1921-1941)
- B-2 (1922-1951)
- B-3 (1922-1940)
- B-4 (1923-1937)
- B-5 (1925-1936)
- B-6 (1926-1936)
- C class Holland F-105 class (6 decommissioned)
- C-1 Isaac Peral (1928-1950)
- C-2 (1928-1951)
- C-3 (1929-1936)
- C-4 (1929-1946)
- C-5 (1930-1937)
- C-6 (1930-1937)
- Archimede class (2 decommissioned)
- General Mola (1937-1958) (ex-Archimede 1934-1937)
- General Sanjurjo (1937-1959) (ex-Torricelli 1935-1937)
- S-01 Type VIIC (1 decommissioned)
- S-01 G-7 (1942-1970) (ex-U573 1941-1942)
- S-10 D class (1 decommissioned)
- S-11 (1947-1965)
- S-20 D modernized class (2 decommissioned)
- S-21 (1951-1971)
- S-22 (1954-1971)
- S-30 Balao class (5 decommissioned)
- S-31 Almirante García de los Reyes (1959-1982) (ex-USS370 Kraken 1944-1959)
- S-32 Isaac Peral (1971-1980) (ex-USS396 Ronquil 1944-1971)
- S-33 Narciso Monturiol (1972-1973)(ex-USS382 Picuda 1943-1972)
- S-34 Cosme García (1972-1980)(ex-USS385 Bang 1943-1972)
- S-35 Narciso Monturiol (2º) (1973-1980)(ex-USS368 Jallao 1944-1974)
- SA-40 Foca class (2 decommissioned)
- SA-41 Foca I (1963-1969)
- SA-42 Foca II (1964-1969)
- SA-50 Tiburón class (2 decommissioned)
- SA-51 Tiburón I (1965-1979)
- SA-52 Tiburón II (1966-1979)
- S-60 Delfín class (4 decommissioned)
- S-61 Delfín (1973-2003)
- S-62 Tonina (1973-2005)
- S-63 Marsopa (1975-2006)
- S-64 Narval (1975-2003)
[edit] Organization
- The Fleet (Headquarter located at Rota)
- Projection Group located at Rota
- 1 Aircraft carrier R-11 Principe de Asturias class
- 2 LPD L-50 Galicia-class
- 2 LST L-40 Pizarro class
- 1 Fleet oiler A-11 Marques de la Ensenada class
- 1 Replenishment ship A-14 Patiño class (located at Ferrol)
- 41st Escort Squadron located at Rota
- 6 Frigates F-80 Santa María class
- 31st Escort Squadron located at Ferrol
- 4 Frigates F-100 Alvaro de Bazán class
- 1 Frigate F-70 Baleares class
- Submarine flotilla located at Cartagena.
- 4 Submarines S-70 Galerna class
- MCM flotilla located at Cartagena
- 1 MCM support ship M-10 Descubierta Modified class
- 6 Minehunters M-30 Segura class
- Projection Group located at Rota
[edit] Naval aircraft
- Aircraft flotilla located at Rota
- 03rd Squadron > 9 Agusta-Bell 212ASW
- 04th Squadron > 3 Cessna 550 Citation II
- 05th Squadron > 8 Sikorsky SH-3H Sea King & 3 Sikorsky SH-3H/AEW
- 06th Squadron > 10 Hughes 500M
- 09th Squadron > 17 McDonnell Douglas MDD EAV-8B/EAV-8B+ /TAV-8B Matador
- 10th Squadron > 12 Sikorsky SH-60B Seahawk
[edit] On Order
- 28 helicopters NHI NH90
[edit] External links
- Official website (in Spanish)
- http://todoababor.webcindario.com/ (Spanish Naval History)
- http://www.revistanaval.com/
- http://www.losbarcosdeeugenio.com/principal_es.html
- El Arma Submarina Española (unofficial website)
- Spanish Navy page on Andrew Toppan's Haze Gray and Underway
- Spain Plans to Upgrade Navy's Projection Group
- Foro Militar General (a great forum)
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