It will not be a nationalization, but it will be an important recovery of state control in the Spanish arms sector. 23 years after the privatization of the public company Santa Barbarain times of José María Aznarthe State, the main shareholder of the technology company INDRAreturns strongly to the land war industry sector. It will be through the consortium TESSfounded in 2020 for the manufacture of armored vehicles, and in which INDRA now controls 51% of the capital, and therefore makes strategic decisions. The rest of the shareholders will be GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas, SAPA and Escribano.
TESS, main contractor of the Armymanufactures advanced military vehicles in factories that the Santa Barbara Systems has in Alcalá de Guadaira, Sevilleand Trubia, Oviedo/Uviéuboth privatized in 2001, and managed by the North American company General Dynamics.
Union sources consulted by NORTH They point out that the operation comes after several delays in the delivery of orders committed to Ministry of Defensewhich imposed a fine of 9 million euros on the consortium for this reason. The State would therefore like, according to these same sources, to gain greater control in the land military industry by betting on INDRA’s leadership in TESS.
In a press release issued by INDRA it is stated that “this new configuration of TESS responds to the Spanish industrial strategy of gaining sovereignty and strategic autonomy in Spain and Europe, and allows the Ministry of Defense to have a figure that centralizes development of land defense vehicles. In addition, it allows us to optimize the operation of the programs that TESS currently has in its portfolio and ensure in a more agile way the effective traction of strategic national projects.”
Repercussions in Asturies
The news could mean not only more employment and workload at the factory Trubia, Oviedo/Uvieubut also a new factory in Asturias of advanced engineering and design in the defense sector.
The Asturian Government has conveyed to Tess Defense its satisfaction with the decision to locate this new center in the community, and considers that the new project will act as a driving force in the creation of employment and innovative companies, the Executive points out in a note.
Armed Keynesianism
The new public role in the military industry does not come at any given moment. The end of the hegemony of the USAand the so-called multipolar world, in which China, Russia either India emerge as new superpowers, is not alien to either the arms race or the desire of states to once again be very present in the war production sector.
Recently the call Draghi Report invited us to take seriously the reindustrialization of the EUas well as overcoming the technological gap that Europeans currently have with respect to the US and China.
The arms sector plays a strategic role in the proposal of the Italian economist, former president of the European Central Bank. The former champion of austerity policies now points to this kind of new Keynesianism that floats in the economic environment of the Old Continent after the pandemic: joint debt issuance by the states, more public investment and more weight of the State in a European reindustrialization that cannot be addressed solely from the short-termism of private companies.
With respect to the military industry, the Italian has defended a direct involvement of the European Investment Bankchaired by the former minister Nadia Calvino. Also advance the integration of the European military industry, currently fragmented between the different member countries, as well as greater autonomy with respect to USA. The drums of war are sounding and the movements in the Spanish war industry are not immune to this new climate.
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