Indra Group activates Spain's defence ecosystem to respond to the Ministry of Defence's industrial plan

Indra has brought together more than 150 companies, SMEs, start-ups, research centres, universities and vocational training centres from all over Spain at its headquarters in Alcobendas, Madrid, with the aim of driving the business, technology and talent ecosystem of our country's defence sector and preparing it to take advantage of the growth opportunities offered by the industrial and defence plans that have been launched in Spain and Europe. 

The executive chairman of Indra Group, Ángel Escribano, and the CEO of Indra Group, José Vicente de los Mozos, sent a clear message of unity to the entire Spanish industry to take advantage of ‘a unique opportunity in which the focus of investment is on defence’. 

The meeting, organised under the title ‘The driving force behind Spain's defence industry ecosystem’, also featured speeches by the Director General of Strategy and Innovation for the Defence Industry, Lieutenant General Miguel Ivorra; the Director General of Armament and Defence Equipment, Admiral Aniceto Rosique; the Director General of Industrial Programmes at the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Llinares; the Director General of National Corporate Financing, Midcaps and SMEs at the Official Credit Institute (ICO), Santiago Novoa; and the Head of the Department of Large Scientific Facilities and Dual Programmes at the Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI), Roberto Trigo. 

More than half of the 150 companies and entities that attended the event are now partners of Indra, many of them through the NGWS/FCAS programme for the development of the air combat system of the future, in which Spain is participating alongside Germany and France, and in which Indra has assumed the role of lead company and is responsible for defending the interests of Spanish industry, ensuring the greatest possible participation and added value. This defence programme, one of the most ambitious ever launched on the continent, is an example of the cooperation model that Indra now wants to promote.

The Indra Group's executive chairman called on the companies and organisations present in the room to take a joint position to ‘capitalise on the opportunities offered by the 800 billion euros of the EU defence plan and the 10,471 million euros of the Spanish Ministry of Defence's Industrial and Technological Plan’ and defended the need to ‘cooperate to develop cutting-edge technologies, establishing long-term relationships that reinforce the industrial expansion of the Spanish defence sector’. The Indra Group's executive chairman stated that ‘we are in an extraordinary situation, we have never had such a good opportunity and only by working together can we achieve the impact we are looking for’. 

Ángel Escribano recalled, however, that ‘around 70% of defence spending in Europe goes to non-European suppliers, making it urgent to develop our own capabilities’ and applauded the fact that, in the case of Spain, the government has set itself the target of executing more than 80% of the budget for the new defence industrial plan in Spain. 

The CEO of Indra Group, José Vicente de los Mozos, then addressed those present to emphasise that ‘only by acting together can we tackle the Spanish Industrial and Technological Plan with the required speed and also gain the scale we need to maximise our presence and leadership in Europe’ and highlighted the importance of promoting ‘cooperation, the co-development of technologies and establishing new ways of working that allow us to gain agility, quality and efficiency’. 

The CEO of Indra Group spoke about ‘the cultural change that Indra has been working on within the Leading the Future Strategic Plan’ and announced that the company is aligning its industrial footprint with the corridors defined by the Ministry of Defence's 2023 Defence Industrial Strategy, thereby reinforcing the backbone effect that the new investment plans will have on the country's economic activity. 

In this process, José Vicente de los Mozos stated that ‘talent will be the real driving force’ and announced that Indra will generate direct employment for an estimated 2,000 engineers and 1,000 new operators with technical and technological qualifications over the next two years. 

These professionals will work on cutting-edge technologies with clear dual use, so their impact on other sectors of the economy will be much broader, helping to strengthen the competitiveness of the Spanish economy and triggering a transformative effect that will place our country among the most advanced in Europe.