MADRID, June 5 (Reuters) - Santa Barbara Systems, a

General Dynamics ( GD ) subsidiary in Spain that is refurbishing

Leopard tanks for delivery to Ukraine, suffered a cyberattack on

its website, a pro-Russia hacker group said.

A spokesperson for General Dynamics ( GD ) confirmed that the

defence contractor's Spanish unit had been targeted in an

attempted cyberattack "that was detected immediately and has not

compromised any of the company's systems".

They said the company decided to temporarily disconnect its

website until an ongoing investigation concluded. "The company's

sensitive data remains well-protected," the spokesperson added.

A spokesperson for General Dynamics ( GD ) in Germany said all of

the company's operations in Europe were running normally.

The NoName hacking group claimed responsibility for the

distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack via the Telegram

messaging service.

These types of attacks direct high volumes of internet

traffic towards targeted servers to knock them offline.

"We sent our DDoS-missiles against websites in russophobic

Spain," the group, which often directs such actions against

countries which support Ukraine, wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.

NATO said last month that Russia was behind an intensifying

campaign of hybrid attacks on companies and infrastructure in

member states, an accusation Russia dismissed as

"misinformation".

Santa Barbara assembles heavy vehicles such as Leopard tanks

and artillery equipment for the Spanish army and has been

involved in refurbishing Spain's mothballed Leopard tanks for

delivery to the Ukrainian army, according to the Defence

Ministry.

Spain's National Cybersecurity Institute had warned the

company in the past few days about the possibility of such

attacks, the General Dynamics ( GD ) spokesperson in Madrid said.

Spain last week pledged 1 billion euros ($1.08 billion) in

military support for Ukraine this year, which according to local

media reports includes 19 Leopard 2A4 tanks.