The armies ask Robles more fighters, ships and personnel

Despite the important disbursement in just a five years, military sources say they have the capacity to absorb these investments and, in fact, the purchase list is already on the table. Only money is missing to start signing contracts. The lack of General State Budgets -The accounts were extended in 2024 and the Government has not presented a project by 2025- reduces the margin of defense maneuver to boost new weapons programs, although not to continue with the financing of the already committed. Ministry sources also ensure that they have mechanisms to fulfill their commitment to continue with the path of increasing expenditure even without budgets, although they do not detail what the possible paths are.

At the moment, the armies and the Navy have already prepared their requests for requests, and both in the Ministry and in the General Staff of the Defense (EMAD) are aware of the priorities to which this increase in spending should be destined.

The first investment, although not the most large, depends directly on the central organ: a Increased number of troops that make up the armed forces. The Ministry has already committed to this and this will obviously increase the money dedicated to the personnel expenses chapter, added to the remuneration increase announced this month to increase the payroll of the military by 200 or 300 euros.

Weapons program

However, most of the increase in investment in defense is expected to be allocated to the signing of large weapons programs. This was already visible in the last approved budgets, those of 2023, when the defense endowment grew by 26% but the greater increase was that of the investment sectionwhich increased by 72%.

Although there is no public commitment, military needs to renew or modernize their abilities have been disseminated on multiple occasions in recent years. To this are added the armament programs already formalized, most of them of multiannual commitment, which means that the payments will lengthen over the next few years and the capabilities will also take time to be in the hands of the armed forces. It’s about More than fifty projects underway That, in total, there are more than 50,000 million euros, according to the calculation of the ‘Spain and Security Industry’ report.

There are part of them, the so -called Special Modernization programs, which have a peculiar payment system, since they are preferred by the Ministry of Industry and Tourism with money that companies return once that the Ministry of Defense begins payments. This chapter includes Great Millionaire programssuch as the S-80 class submarines, the acquisition of new Eurofighter combat aircraft, F-110 frigates, the 8×8 Dragon Combat vehicle or the Patriot and Nasams anti-aircraft missile systems. “They seek to meet the needs of modernization of our armed forces, providing them with systems, equipment and infrastructure to achieve an operational standard that allows to respond and face the risks and threats related to the national defense,” the Secretary of State for Defense, Amparo Valcarce, Valcarce, explained last week in Congress.

However, the needs of the Armed Forces go far beyond these programs already underway. The Navy has expressed its medium -term objectives in the 2050 armed document in which, although it does not specify capabilities, it marks the course towards which their needs are directed in the coming decades. These go through an increase in marine infantry, anti -submarine war capabilities or marine soil defense, already under conflict from the beginning of the Ukraine War. There are also other needs whose materialization is of course, such as the modernization of F-100 frigates, ships against mines or the acquisition of new maritime action ships.

Much more transparent was the director of Naval Engineering and Constructions of the Navy, the Vice Admiral Nicolás Lapiqueat the Chilean Exponaval defense fair, where he presented a document with the aspiration of the Spanish Naval Force in relation to ships. That slide, which circulated through social networks, revealed its ambitions far beyond the projects underway and expressed the desire of the Navy to have more submarines, new corvettes and even have two holder ships in service with strategic projection capacity.

The needs of the Air and Space Army are not minor, and some even urgent, due to the proximity to the end of the useful life of some of their materials. This is the case of F-18 fighters. The oldest, located at the Gando Base, in the Canary Islands, will be replaced by Eurofighter whose purchase has already been signed by the Government in the Falcon I and Falcon II programs. However, the Air Force has already stated that its desire is to have two different types of platforms in service.

The plans are mixed here with the needs of the Navy, which has to renew its Harrier combat fighters. They are the only ones with Vertical take -off and landing capacity And, therefore, with the possibility of being embarked on Juan Carlos I. If Spain wants to maintain this capacity, I would have to opt for another model with these characteristics, but defense resists making a decision. The clearest substitute would be the American F-35, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, although recently the head of the Air Force, General Francisco Braco, opened the fan to other options.

Another of its requests is the Substitution of F-5 with those who train the hunting pilots of the Spanish Air Force. A recent defense agreement with Türkiye marks the way for the chosen to be the Turkish model Hürjet.

Command and control

The list of needs in the land army is not minor, based mostly on its 2035 brigade project in which it has been working for years. One of the pillars of this program is 8×8 combat vehiclealready in manufacturing but object of controversy due to the extensive delays in deliveries.

In any case, military sources point out that command and control is the first request of the land army. It is a mechanism capable of putting together all the systems and weapons of a brigade to be able to act as a coordinated unit, they explain from the terrestrial branch of the Armed Forces. Their efforts are also focused on another series of programs, some already underway, vital for their operability in the future, such as the Missiles Contracaro Spike, air defense systems, unmanned aerial vehicles or the embarked mortar.