The head of the Army: ‘We are struggling with the problem of fragmentation in the land systems industry’

The Chief of the Army Staff (JEME) since October 2021, General Amador Enseñat, 64, recently offered an overview of the general situation facing the land component of the Spanish Armed Forces and, in relation to rearming with new military capabilities ‘made in Spain’, made it clear that ‘we are struggling with the drawback of fragmentation in the land systems industry’. 

1. Bringing digital transformation to the battlefield
2. Facts and figures on an army deployed in ten scenarios

In his closing speech at the III Defence Conference organised by El Debate, he made it clear that the problem of the national industrial fabric ’is being addressed through integration, association, collaboration and coordination' between companies. He acknowledged that ‘we have a lot of land systems companies competing with each other for small programmes, but without the capacity to bid for larger ones, whether in Spain, the EU’ or elsewhere. 

The JEME referred to economic issues in general terms. He acknowledged that he is ‘aware that Spanish industry needs a lot of public and private investment, while also requiring certainty’ with regard to military programmes and their development. He also stated that ‘none of us here are unaware that, for many years, we have had very low defence budgets’, which has had repercussions ‘on preparation, operational capacity, equipment and infrastructure’. 

The increases in defence budgets in recent years have helped ‘but not enough’ and, immediately afterwards, he referred to a saying from his native Galicia, which in some way sums up the reality currently facing the Armed Forces: ‘Before, we had to buy and we had no money, and now that we have money, we have nothing to buy’. 

He sent a clear message to the leaders of the national defence industry: ‘We have problems acquiring equipment’ because ‘demand is very high, but supply is very low’. He concluded his remarks by stating that ‘there is only one thing worse than managing scarcity, and that is managing abundance,’ alluding to the Armed Forces' commitment to using the resources made available to them by the Spanish people ‘in the most rigorous and efficient manner possible.’ 

Bringing digital transformation to the battlefield

General Enseñat wanted to emphasise the five priorities that defence investments aim to cover, within the military planning led by the Chief of the Defence Staff (JEMAD), Admiral Teodoro López Calderón. Firstly, ‘maintaining existing military capabilities’. In other words, ‘making sure that what we have works’. 

The second and third priorities are to ‘complete and modernise existing capabilities’. Fourthly, the objective is to ‘acquire new capabilities, either to recover those we have lost – such as rocket launchers, he pointed out – or to acquire new capabilities made available to us by the technological revolution’. The fifth priority is none other than ‘having the necessary personnel, in terms of quantity and quality, to carry out our missions’.

In terms of organisation for the next ten years, the JEME has reiterated that its horizon is the initiative known as ‘Army 2035’, which is based on four pillars. The first is Force 2035, ‘organised and trained to carry out the most demanding missions, with highly motivated and prepared personnel and technologically advanced equipment’. 

The second is to remodel and establish combat and logistical support ‘that is up to the standard of the Force 2035 project’. Its key element is the Army's logistics base in Córdoba, ‘which is being built according to criteria based on predictive logistics supported by emerging and disruptive technologies’. The third goal seeks to bring about the digital transformation of the entire organisation, with the responsibility of projecting it even ‘to the battlefield’. 

Fuerza 2035 is a project whose scope and ambition have been raised in recent years. Previously, it covered practically up to the brigade level, but it has now been extended ‘to the entire Army’. In its final configuration, the increase in combat, support and logistical capabilities ‘that we have received or expect to receive thanks to increased defence budgets (...) to be able to operate in a joint, combined, integrated and multi-domain environment’ plays a key role. 

The JEME has reiterated that the Army's mission is to ‘generate, equip, prepare and sustain land contingents to make them available to the operational structure under the command of the JEMAD’, who is in charge of military operations. The human resources at General Enseñat's disposal are ‘the personnel, who are the most important thing’. ‘We have 73,667 men and women on active duty, of whom approximately 10 per cent – around 7,350 – are in other organisations’, such as the Defence Staff, the Royal Guard, the Ministry of Defence and the UME.  

Facts and figures on an army deployed in ten scenarios

He highlighted that Army personnel are deployed on NATO missions in Slovakia, Iraq, Latvia and Turkey. They are also involved in European Union operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mozambique, the Central African Republic and Somalia, as well as in Lebanon and Colombia under the United Nations flag, making a total of ten very different scenarios.

To this should be added the cooperative security activities carried out by the Army in Benin, Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal and Tunisia. In total, there are ‘approximately an average of 2,500 military personnel’ outside the national territory, he specified, representing ‘around two-thirds of the total number of Spanish Armed Forces personnel on missions abroad’. 

In terms of statistics, the JEME has announced that the Army's arsenal of weapons systems and mobile platforms amounts to no less than ‘12,594 wheeled vehicles, 1,673 tracked vehicles and 1,125 wheeled combat vehicles’, bringing the total number of motorised land vehicles to ‘around 15,500. To this must be added 223 pieces of field artillery, 210 surface-to-air missile launchers and 108 helicopters’.  

With regard to infrastructure, it specified that it is responsible for ’664 properties, of which 450 are permanently inhabited’. Of these, 340 are bases, barracks or establishments, 69 are training grounds, 14 are educational centres and a dozen are ammunition depots, all of which ‘constitute an asset that facilitates recruitment, maintains our territorial presence and allows us to quickly support the civil authorities in alleviating emergencies and the ravages of disasters’. 

The ‘four cardinal points’ that guide the Army's actions, summarised by the JEME, are innovation and openness to change; tradition, to be proud of the achievements of those who came before us in the line of duty; values, which are a requirement for military personnel; and, of course, knowledge. He emphasised that the Army's motto is ‘the strength of values’ and that ‘those of us who have committed our blood cannot skimp on sweat’.

General Enseñat recalled that he is working with a view to promoting an Army that is a ‘modern, integrated, balanced and sustainable instrument of deterrence and defence’, while also being ‘decisive, effective, available, close to society and committed’ to constitutional values, and with the capacity ‘to prevent and mitigate possible risks or threats’ to the security, freedom, rights and well-being of the Spanish people.