MADRID, June 5 (Reuters) -

A unit of General Dynamics ( GD ), Spain-based Santa Barbara

Systems, which is refurbishing Leopard tanks for delivery to

Ukraine, suffered a cyber attack that took its website down, a

pro-Russian hackers group said.

A spokesperson for General Dynamics ( GD ) in Germany said the

defence contractor was still analysing the cause of the website

outage, adding that all of its operations in Europe were running

normally.

The NoName hacking group on the Telegram messaging service

claimed responsibility for the distributed denial-of-service

(DDoS) attack.

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

military support for Ukraine this year, which according to local

media reportscyber includes 19 Leopard 2A4 tanks.