The purchase of 16 military aircraft from Airbus Spain waters the national presence at the Paris aerospace show
The Spanish companies are developing a frenetic activity in the 54th edition of the International Air and Space Show in Le Bourget to continue demonstrating to their partners from Germany, the United States, France, Korea and a long etcetera their great capabilities and that they are on the hunt for new opportunities for cooperation.
The presence of the more than 30 Spanish companies at the Paris show has been paid off with the decision of the Council of Ministers on 20 June to modify the spending limits for a much-needed purchase for the Spanish Air Force: six C295W aircraft configured for Maritime Patrol missions and another ten for Maritime Surveillance and Rescue and Rescue, known by their acronym VIGMA.
Their manufacture at the San Pablo Sur factory in Seville will overlap with that of others already committed, including 16 C295 transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force, the first of which flew on 5 May. The first C295 for the Spanish Air Force will be delivered within 50 days of contract signature, which is expected to take place in the next few weeks or September.
It will be configured as a maritime patrol version to confirm the design. Initially it will not incorporate the anti-submarine warfare component - torpedoes, sonobuoys... - a capability that Spain lost when it retired the last P-3M Orion from service in December 2022 and which will be progressively enabled in the new aircraft.
With the backing of the Ministry of Defence
The economic volume of the acquisition of the 16 aircraft for the Spanish Air Force and the Spanish Space Agency represents an outlay for the state coffers of 1,730 million euros between the current financial year (50 million) and 2031, the final year of the programme in which 150 million euros will be paid out.
The green light to begin the formal purchase of the 16 C295s coincided with a visit to the Spanish pavilion at the Paris exhibition by the Secretary of State for Defence, Amparo Valcarce, accompanied by the Director General for Armaments and Material, Admiral Aniceto Rosique, and the Spanish Ambassador to France, Victorio Redondo.
As the Secretary of State for Defence has reiterated in recent days whenever she has the opportunity, she has once again reassured Spanish executives by assuring them that the fact that President Sánchez has surprisingly decided to bring the general elections forward to 23 July "will not paralyse any programme".
Amparo Valcarce took advantage of her stay in Paris to meet with the Director General of Armaments of the French Ministry of Defence, Emmanuel Chiva, to update the situation of the project for the future European FCAS fighter and the entry of Belgium as an observer country. And to clarify the status of the A400 transport aircraft programme, for which the purchase of three new aircraft announced by Minister Robles at the beginning of May has not yet been confirmed, with the intention of increasing the number of Spanish military aviation units from 14 to 17.
Acuerdo Oesia-Tecnobit con Lockheed Martin
Another clear example of the dynamism that Spanish industry is demonstrating at Le Bourget is the agreement that has just been signed between the president of the Oesia group, Lluis Furnells, and the vice-president of International Business at Lockheed Martin, Ray Piselli.
The document strengthens the relationship between the two companies and makes the Spanish industrial group a strategic partner in the supply chain of one of the three major aerospace and defence corporations in the United States. Both industrial groups want to take advantage of the new situation offered by the global market and combine their activities in the areas of satellite communications and secure tactical, electronic warfare, simulation and mission systems for defence.
The large US corporation has identified the Oesia group as playing an "important role" in the Spanish aerospace and defence system, with which "we intend to further expand our industrial relations", Ray Piselli stresses. For Luis Furnells, the agreement represents "a great opportunity to increase our presence in the international market", as well as "the beginning of a new stage with Lockheed Martin", which goes back twenty years.
ITP Aero and Indra are pleased to have been jointly awarded a two-year contract by the Spanish Air Force's Logistics Support Command to provide a comprehensive engineering and maintenance service for its weapons systems and associated subsystems and equipment. This includes combat, transport and maritime patrol aircraft, helicopters, drones and even command, control and communications systems, as well as digitalisation, operation and management systems.
Three other Le Bourget veterans have received a major accolade. Aciturri has been selected by the US company Boom Supersonic to design and develop the vertical and horizontal stabiliser, rudder and elevators for the new supersonic aircraft Overture, which aims to become the fastest passenger aircraft on the market. And Aernnova to do the same for the wings. Héroux-Devtek Spain, formerly CESA, which specialises in the development of electromechanical actuators and has offices in Getafe (Madrid) and Seville, has shown its innovative emergency braking hook for the future South Korean KAI KF-21 Boramae fighter.
