The most dazzling jewels on wheels or with wings at FEINDEF 25
- From super heavy to super armed and protected
- Green light for the start of the Spanish-Turkish trainer aircraft programme
During the three days that FEINDEF 25 held its doors open in Madrid, from 12 to 14 May, the attention of most of its professional visitors was focused on the most advanced wheeled armoured combat vehicles and the most innovative armoured tracked transport vehicles.
With firepower, mobility and survivability as key factors in air and land military deterrence, Spanish and third-country companies brought their latest technological innovations to the fourth edition of Spain's International Defence and Security Fair. These include General Dynamics European Land Systems-Santa Barbara (GDELS-SB), Escribano, Uro, Germany's Rheinmetall, Ukraine's Praktica, Turkey's Turkish Aerospace and, of course, Airbus Spain.
As the heads of the official delegations, senior military officials and visitors entered the main exhibition hall of FEINDEF (Pavilion 10 at IFEMA), they were greeted by the two impressive giants on display at the GDELS-SB stand: the Piranha 10x10 and Némesis self-propelled howitzers, the latter making its world debut.
The Spanish Army requires new heavy artillery systems in terms of quantity, power and range, which is why Némesis is an option to be considered. Its high firepower is based on the 155-millimetre AGM automatic firing cannon module from the German branch of KNDS, a strategic consortium formed between the French state-owned land weapons systems company Nexter and the private German company KMW.
With 360º orientation and a range of up to 54-70 kilometres, depending on the type of projectile and charges used, the installation of the turret with the gun on the proven Ascod tracked platform, with more than a thousand units in service, has been carried out at the GDELS-SB factories in Trubia (Asturias) and Alcalá de Guadaira (Seville). Operated by two people or by remote control, the system is powered by a 1,100 horsepower diesel engine that allows it to move over a wide variety of rough terrain.
‘The final integration and testing of the vehicle took place at the company's Andalusian headquarters,’ confirms Juan Escriña, who points out that Némesis ‘is a technological upgrade of the Donar project’ and that it is ‘GLDS-SB's proposal to replace the nearly one hundred veteran M-109A5E self-propelled vehicles in the Spanish Artillery’.
From super heavy to super armed and protected
The M-109s, also 155 mm calibre, are of American origin, have a maximum range of just over 30 kilometres and, although modernised, are more than three decades old. Fortunately, the Industrial and Technological Plan for Security and Defence announced by President Sánchez on 24 April allocates 300 million euros to their replacement.
The second option for heavy firepower proposed by GDELS-SB is the Piranha 10x10, an impressive ten-wheeled vehicle mounted with the same automatic reloading cannon as the Nemesis. Weighing around 40 tonnes and operated by two people, like the Nemesis, both projects are examples of transatlantic cooperation between the Franco-German consortium KNDS and the European division of the American multinational General Dynamics.
The Escribano group did not want to miss FEINDEF 25 without presenting its new Ferox wheeled combat vehicle to the world, a 6x6 all-terrain vehicle weighing around 27 tonnes, which is the result of the agreement signed in February at the IDEX 25 exhibition between the Spanish firm and the Emirati company NIMR. With capacity for a dozen combatants, its modular design allows its ballistic and mine protection to be adapted to combat circumstances. The company plans to install the assembly line at its new factory in Linares (Jaén).
According to Lieutenant General Fernando García González-Valerio, advisor to the company chaired by Javier Escribano, the Ferox proposal is a ‘qualitative leap forward that combines tactical mobility, protection and firepower for intervention in high-intensity scenarios, both conventional and asymmetric’. Its purpose is to accompany, escort and carry out reconnaissance missions in support of the VCR 8x8 Dragón, for which it can be armed with Spike anti-tank missiles and automatic turrets with 12.7 mm cannons or machine guns.
Urovesa has once again showcased its wide range of High Mobility Tactical Vehicles (VAMTAC) and brought 13 different configurations of its light all-terrain vehicles to Madrid. On display at its large stand and at the companies and institutions whose weapon systems are carried on board, FEINDEF 25 showcased its new NBQ Pitón reconnaissance vehicle for the Army, which houses the Mistral 3 short-range surface-to-air missile system of the Marine Corps and is equipped with the Eimos mortar carrier of the Air Force.
The powerful German company Rheinmetall has exhibited for the first time in Spain a kind of rhino weighing more than 50 tonnes: the impressive German Keiler Next Generation engineer vehicle. Based on the Leopard 2 tank platform and its Kodiak version, the German company has developed a huge multi-purpose engineer vehicle, specially equipped to open wide gaps and corridors in mined areas. It has a large front plough for lifting anti-tank mines and an automatic system for marking the perimeter of the corridor that has been cleared of explosive devices.
Green light for the start of the Spanish-Turkish trainer aircraft programme
The presence at FEINDEF of the Ukrainian company Praktica and its 5.5-tonne 4x4 light tactical armoured vehicles attracted a lot of attention: the Djura family, based on the chassis of the Japanese commercial vehicle Toyota Land Cruiser 70; and the Kozac range, a national design whose model on display was riddled with bullet holes and whose impact brakes aroused the interest of professionals. Praktika and Tecnove have reached an agreement to manufacture some configurations of both models in Spain.
Another star attraction that caught the eye and aroused the interest of those attending FEINDEF 25 was the full-scale model of the Turkish Hürjet supersonic two-seater trainer, which is being presented as a likely replacement for the 19 Northrop F-5s of the 23rd Wing based in Talavera la Real, received from 1971 and configured to the M version since 1989. The presence of the advanced single-engine trainer model was justified by the important official ceremony that took place a few hours before the official closing of FEINDEF 25 on 14 May.
The event consisted of the signing by Airbus Defence and Space, the industrial coordinator in Spain, and Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the joint promotion of the aircraft in the Spanish Air Force. The document aims to identify and develop areas of collaboration within the framework of a programme called the Integrated Training-Combat System, ITS-C, with a view to the acquisition of around thirty units.
Airbus' responsibilities include contributing its extensive industrial experience, as well as integrating the capabilities and supervising the certification provided by the Spanish industries associated with the programme: Aciturri, Aernnova, Aertec, Airtificial, Amper, Centum, Cesa, Clue, GMV, Grabysur Indra, ITP Aero, Grupo Oesia, Orbital and Sener. With regard to the aircraft, the forecast is that a first batch of aircraft will be produced in Turkey and a second batch will already include Spanish-made systems on board.
During the official ceremony, the president of the Turkish Defence Industries Organisation, Professor Haluk Görgün, said that the agreement reached means that the Hürjet ‘is no longer just a Turkish venture, but a platform with multinational prospects’. The Director General of Strategy and Innovation for the Defence Industry, Air Force Lieutenant General Miguel Ivorra, closed the official ceremony by emphasising that the signing of the MOU represents ‘a firm step’ towards ‘solid, strategic and innovative’ industrial cooperation, which ‘repositions Spanish industry at the centre of an international project’.
General Ivorra also pointed out that the industrial alliance led by Airbus and TAI is a ‘shared commitment’ and an ‘opportunity to develop our own capabilities, gain technological sovereignty and ensure a tangible and sustainable industrial return’. He emphasised that the agreement is aimed at obtaining an advanced training platform both in the air and on the ground, and at establishing ‘an alliance that will enable the industry to actively contribute to the design, integration and maintenance of the system, both in its industrial phase and in its future development’.
Also on display at FEINDEF 25 was a High Performance Remotely Piloted System or SIRTAP, the aircraft being developed by Airbus Defence and Space Spain, which is set to become the first national unmanned aerial system to serve in the Spanish Armed Forces. With its flight test campaign scheduled for the end of this year and a total of 27 drones committed by the Ministry of Defence, its first operational customer is expected to be the Army from the beginning of 2027.
