It is one of the primary suppliers of the Military of Spain and is responsible for the assembly of heavy vehicles such as the Spanish Army's Leopard 2Emain battle tank and the Pizarro infantry combat vehicle. The primary lines of business of Santa Bárbara Sistemas are armoured vehicles, special and amphibious vehicles, weapons systems, munitions and missiles, and Research & Development. The company is delivering the prototypes of the UK's Scout SV AFV through General Dynamics in the UK.
SBS was founded in 1960 by bringing together factories of the Spanish Ministry of Defense under the Instituto Nacional de Industria. These included arsenals in Sevilla, Oviedo, Trubia and A Coruna.
SBS was denationalised by Spain and acquired by General Dynamics Europe in July 2001.[citation needed]
In June 2024 SBS announced the reactivation of its artillery gun barrel manufacturing capacity at Trubia.[3]