Spain's Ministry of Defence announces a "major budgetary effort" for 2024
Amparo Valcarce, the Secretary of State for Defence in the all-female team of senior officials led by the magistrate Margarita Robles, assures that "the Spanish government has given priority to Defence". This was a phrase pronounced on 27 November before the directors of the Spanish defence industry, who were surprised to hear such a statement for the first time.
The new coalition government under President Sánchez has given the Armed Forces the seal of pre-eminence, Valcarce said, has an immediate consequence. The Ministry of Defence is going to give life to "a new investment cycle", which in the budgetary sphere will have a "major effort in 2024", anticipated the Secretary of State, who did not reveal the scope of this decision.
The measure was announced by the woman who, together with the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Teodoro López Calderón, is Margarita Robles' most trusted advisor. She did so on the occasion of the closing of the annual forum of the Association of Contractor Companies with the Public Administrations, AESMIDE, an organisation chaired by Gerardo Sánchez Revenga, which this year was dedicated to analysing the "Challenges of the industrial and technological base of defence".
The Secretary of State took advantage of the event organised by AESMIDE to emphasise that in the "new legislature that we are now beginning", her Ministry is going to place a "marked emphasis" on two major axes: the modernisation and digital transformation of the armies, the Navy and the structure of the department itself.
Valcarce assures that she will devote "special attention" to the modernisation of systems aimed at "reinforcing" the capabilities of the Armed Forces and their digital transformation, which "requires an ambitious and committed response from industry". All of this entails "developing military capabilities. Yes, of course. But also the economy, business, employment and territorial cohesion", she stressed.
The defence industry must be more ambitious
Valcarce sent a message to the main executives of AESMIDE and the national defence business network present in the photo: "The industry has to be up to the new investment cycle that we want to open" and, raising her voice and emphasising her words, she asked those present for "more ambition!"
Not only has she called for "greater ambition to invest" from the industry. She also highlighted the urgency of "a radical change" towards the digital revolution that Industry 4.0 represents. "We don't need factories of the last century, but factories of the 21st century", while she called for a greater attraction of talent, the creation of more quality employment and a firm commitment to innovation.
She also called on industries to be "more dynamic, to invest in improving their production systems, above all, in engineering, technology and innovation". And she noted once again that investment in defence "generates quality employment, boosts talent and innovation and increases the competitiveness of national companies".
This should translate into "favouring exports" and "strengthening the industrial and technological base of defence". The ultimate aim is to "increase" national and European strategic autonomy, both in general and in defence in particular. "Spain wants to contribute to the Europe of defence as a preferential partner", Valcarce pointed out.
The main instruments in the hands of the Secretary of State for Defence are the Armaments and Materiel procurement programmes, but Amparo Valcarce emphasised the "transversal programmes for the development of common critical capabilities" of the armies and navies, with which it aims to improve, take advantage of and guarantee the supposed national autonomy that is being sought.
Identifying available technologies
There are three main cross-cutting programmes that Amparo Valcarce wanted to draw attention to, and in which, she said, "right now we are looking for and need the response of industry". One of these is the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), which aims to provide the armed forces with a family of software-defined radios that enable secure, reliable and seamless communications to share vital data and information.
Another is the programme to obtain critical technologies capable of being applied to a future high-resolution optical observation satellite and a new-generation radar, the so-called Challenge 1 and Challenge 2. A third is the Spanish Military Satellite Communications System, SECOMSAT, which aims to develop a network of deployable satellite terminals that will be used to exchange information in real time between political-strategic, operational and tactical decision-making centres.
In short, Defence aims to reliably identify the knowledge and availability of technologies possessed by national industry. It is essential to be able to carry out industrial policies that result in being able to make "decisions on the most suitable acquisition routes," emphasises Amparo Valcarce, "to make the military capabilities required by the Armed Forces effective".
One of the commitments is to become more agile and quicker in incorporating the latest technologies and innovations. On the basis of the responses of the national industry, Defence will open its hand, or not, to the possibility of incorporating "interested European or even global companies" into certain Spanish defence programmes. They will be able to do so "in the form of consortiums or strategic alliances, which we are committed to", the Secretary of State stressed.
The new direction taken by Defence is not only due to President Sánchez's commitment to increase military investment to 2% by 2029. It is also the result of the fact that "Spanish society is changing its perception of defence and security," said Amparo Valcarce. The Secretary of State for Defence acknowledged that "the profound changes in security matters, the major conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and the consequences of natural disasters resulting from climate change" have a special influence on this.