Its sister vessel, ARA San Juan was the only other one of its type, though the program originally sought to produce a larger number of submarines.

[7] In September 2016, Santa Cruz started a renovation and life extension program at the Tandanor shipyard in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The work was to include changing all 960 batteries, periscope and snorkel maintenance, revision of engines, and overall system upgrades.

[8] Renovation work was halted on 15 November 2017 when sister ship San Juan imploded and subsequently sunk, to determine whether the cause of the incident was due to a failure that could be repeated on Santa Cruz.

[9] However, by the end of 2020 the refit of Santa Cruz had been reported cancelled leaving the navy without an operational submarine.