Madrid aerospace and defence companies accelerate their presence in foreign markets
The Community of Madrid concentrates the largest number of companies and manufacturing facilities linked to the aerospace and defence industry in Spain. This is similar to what is happening in France, where the Paris region - also known as the Ile de France - is home to an enormous number of companies related to the aeronautics, space and defence sectors.
There are 267 companies out of a national total of 790, according to data held by the Ministry of Defence, which means that one out of every three is located in the Madrid region. Several factors work in favour of the Spanish capital and its surroundings: it is home to the main decision-making centres of the national government, it is geographically central, it is surrounded by major urban centres and numerous industrial estates - with a large number of industries and auxiliary services - and it has an extensive network of land and air communications with the rest of Spain.
In addition to the above, there is the geostrategic reality, the effort for competitiveness promoted by Brussels and an autonomous government that trusts in the strength of the sector. This is highlighted by the Community's Director General for Economic and Industrial Promotion, Jaime Martínez, who recognises that it is an industrial ecosystem ‘with a very high added value, as well as being committed to innovation, investment and job creation’.
Jaime Martinez describes the group of aerospace and defence companies as ‘strategic for the Madrid economy’, while considering that ‘it brings together all the necessary assets to make the Community of Madrid the flagship of the national defence industry’. He expressed this before a hundred managers and executives gathered at the College of Industrial Engineers of Madrid (COIIM), from whom she listened to the experiences of the processes of internalisation, expansion, improvement and innovation of half a dozen large, medium and small companies.
The Regional Minister of Economy, Finance and Employment of the Community of Madrid, Rocío Albert, endorsed the words of its director general at the close of the business conference held on 22 October at the COIIM, whose dean is Fabián Torres. She is aware that the aerospace and defence fabric in Madrid is made up of ‘top industries, which must be given relevance in the region, supported, and mechanisms must be sought to create a stable environment for them and to encourage their expansion into international markets’.
In search of new competitive capacities
The COIIM meeting was also attended by the Director General of Economy of Madrid, Juan Manuel Lopez Zafra, who was interested in finding out why Airbus - with Francisco Javier Sánchez recently appointed President - is hosting the process whereby the A330 passenger aircraft is converted into the A330 MRTT, an in-flight refuelling and strategic transport aircraft at its Getafe factory. The head of Institutional Relations for Sales, European Union, Defence and Digital of Airbus, Cristina García Aliste, has clarified that the reason is that ‘it was Spanish engineers from Getafe who came up with the whole design and all the engineering’.
The Airbus executive added that the MRTT ‘has 90 % of the world market and operates in more than 15 countries’, and that the conversion of the A330 into a multipurpose aircraft takes ‘almost a year of work, longer than the time it takes to manufacture the A330 transcontinental passenger aircraft’. She also notes that ‘for every job Airbus generates, 3.7 jobs are created in the supply chain’ and that ‘every euro invested has a multiplier effect of 2.4’.
Einsa is a company located in Alcalá de Henares whose main activity is the design, development and manufacture of ground support equipment for civil and military aircraft, as well as military tactical vehicles for special operations, transport of cargo, wounded and personnel. Its general manager, David Ayala, stresses that his company is ‘strongly internationalised’, and that from the current turbulent scenario he hopes to extract ‘advantages and new competitive capabilities with a view to integrating into both European and North American supply chains’.
On behalf of Escribano M&E, a firm headed by brothers Ángel and Javier Escribano, its National Business Development Director, Elena Delgado, said that the fact of having selected the Guardian 30 automatic turret for the 8x8 Dragon Wheeled Armoured Vehicle ‘has allowed us to supply it to different countries’. As for Tess Defence, a consortium created together with Indra, GDELS-Santa Bárbara and SAPA to develop and manufacture the Dragon, ‘we like to say that together we do not add, but multiply’. Thus, ‘the main objective of Tess is to be the national reference in the development of ground platforms’.
In the field of information and communications technologies, GMV is present on all five continents. One of its heads of Business Development and Institutional Relations, Begoña Rojo, emphasises the recent acquisition of Autek, ‘specialising in the secure transfer of large volumes of data’, a military requirement, but also a requirement of governments, official institutions, large corporations and companies managing critical infrastructures.
Dual use of a large part of defence technologies
Begoña Rojo highlights the importance of the purchase of Autek and details that the studies in the possession of Jesús Serrano, GMV's general manager, ‘anticipate that cybersecurity systems and services will grow by around 10/12 per year until 2030, both in Spain and in Europe’. The advantage of the products marketed by Autek is that ‘they are certified by the National Cryptologic Centre and NATO’.
The Director of Development of Industrial Initiatives of the Oesia Group, Félix Fernández Merino, highlights three aspects that he considers key: that specialisation ‘is the only way to make us competitive on an international level’, that in alliances with foreign countries we must seek ‘complementarity’ and that on the national side it is desirable to have ‘budgetary planning that ensures sustainability’, as his colleagues in the dialogue agree.
He assures that Oesia's companies are present ‘in 40 countries’ and stresses the ‘dual nature’ of most of the technologies developed by the majority of aerospace and defence companies, especially the five in his industrial group. Félix Fernández Merino's company focuses on the development and manufacture of advanced electronics and products for terrestrial and satellite communications, simulation, surveillance, cybersecurity, cryptography and automatic navigation systems, which are used in both military and civilian applications.
Sener's point of view was represented by its Director of Remote Control Systems, José Antonio Ceballos, who focused his speech on the company's participation in the Patriot air defence system, ‘a high added-value project whose technologies can be used in the space sector’, one of the main activities of the Sener engineering group.
The conference on the industrialisation of the sector was organised by IndustryTalks, directed by Pedro Carrillo, with the participation of the Ministry of Defence's Foreign Support Office (OFICAEX). One of its heads, Colonel Ángel Sevillano, explained that his organisation ‘supports the presence of large companies and SMEs in foreign markets’, that international cooperation in weapons systems ‘forms part of national foreign policy’ and that it is ‘very important to interconnect the military world with the civilian world’.