Cloudy Horizon for Next Secretary of State for Defense

The Secretary of State for Defence of Spain, Ángel Olivares, has presented his irrevocable resignation for "personal reasons" to the head of the department, Margarita Robles, resigning and leaving the Government which will be formalised at a forthcoming Council of Ministers.

Ángel Olivares has occupied the second political rank of the Ministry of Defence for exactly two years, since he took office on 11 June 2018. He is a person of total trust to the minister, with whom he worked hand in hand when he was Director General of the Police (1994-1996) during the period in which Margarita Robles occupied the Secretariat of State for Justice and the Interior (1994-1996). She was under the command of the so-called biministro, Juan Alberto Belloch, in the last cabinet of Prime Minister Felipe González.

A former mayor of the city of Burgos between 1999 and 2003 and a government delegate on several occasions, the still Secretary of State for Defence is responsible for policy on the acquisition and renewal of arms and equipment, as well as research, defence industry, infrastructure and economic affairs.

Olivares' resignation for "personal" reasons is complemented by allusions to "family reasons". However, it is not to be ruled out that there are also other important reasons. Among them, the serious difficulties that the Defense will have in the immediate future to obtain the essential economic funds to maintain its multimillionaire calendar of investments and terms, in which Angel Olivares "has given the face", assure in sources of the sector.

If the new General State Budget does not include the financing already committed or agreed in many cases, it will be very difficult to assume the development phase of important new weapons systems and the execution for the renovation of the old weapons park. 

In sources of the industrial fabric of defence, bets are made on who will be the person chosen by Margarita Robles to replace Ángel Olivares. Both among the military high officials and in the high management of the companies, it is believed that, by leaving the way free for her current Secretary of State, the minister has already finalized her decision.

In both groups, they are inclined for the person chosen to be a professional who already knows the ins and outs of defence, who knows and is aware of the challenges facing the ministry, especially in the areas of modernising and updating the defence system and the funds that the European Union is going to allocate for this purpose.

In order to replace Ángel Olivares, names of directors belonging to large companies directly related to the Ministry of Defence and Industry are being considered, such as Susana Sarriá, president of the state-owned shipyard Navantia; Fernando Abril-Martorell, president of Indra technology; Miguel Ángel García Primo, CEO of the government operator Hisdesat; Miguel Angel Panduro, who heads the commercial satellite operator Hispasat; Francisco Quereda or Jesus Alonso, CEO and Business Development Director, respectively, of Isdefe, the defence technology consultancy firm.

However, despite the fact that the aforementioned have an in-depth knowledge of the defence field and the challenges ahead, they have all had a close relationship with Ángel Olivares, but not so much with the Minister. Margarita Robles is not comfortable with issues related to weapons systems and, in practice, has left the big decisions on arms purchases in the hands of her Secretary of State, at least until now. 

The person who has a lot of support for his appointment to the position that remains vacant is the director general of Military Education and Recruitment, Amparo Valcarce, a personal friend of the minister and who he added to his ministerial team in mid-2018. Professor of Geography and History, her right hand would be Admiral Santiago González Gómez, current director of Armament and Material, who has an excellent and highly professional team that manages and supervises the different programs.

But all those consulted agree that it would probably mean a brake on the programmes already underway. Another possible person who could fill the position is Esperanza Casteleiro, its current Chief of Staff and a former senior official of the National Intelligence Centre, who has a great knowledge of the sector and as such is aware of the situation.

Opening the door to Angel Olivares' departure and making way for a new - or new - Secretary of State for Defence allows for a review of all the commitments made. This is the fear of the industrial sector linked to Defence and also that of the armies of Land, Air and Navy, whose programmes are progressing late and underfunded.

The solo resignation of the number three in Defence - who follows in precedence the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air General Miguel Ángel Villaroya - occurs when defence sector sources are concerned about whether the ministry will be able to maintain its commitments in the arms acquisition programmes in which it is immersed.

To cite just a few examples, this would be the case of the new F-110 frigates for the Spanish Navy, which are key to the modernisation of the high seas fleet. Also the participation, together with Germany and France, in the technological demonstration program of the Next Generation Weapons System (NGWS) within the better known Future Air Combat System or FCAS. It is also the situation of the development of the new 8x8 Wheeled Combat Vehicle, essential to retire BMR vehicles with more than 40 years of service. And that of the EuroMale, an ambitious tripartite project to fly a large military drone in which Spain participates with Germany, France and Italy. 

Ángel Olivares assures that when the minister called him to take up the post, "he was happily retired" and what he is doing now "is returning" to his previous situation. "The years are passing, they are accumulating and new wisdom is needed," he stressed after anticipating his decision today, Thursday, June 18. 

She took the position offered to her by Margarita Robles because "I had a commitment to the minister, which required my collaboration". Although he made a commitment "for a year", he stressed that during the two years in which he has been in charge of the acquisition of arms, material and infrastructure he has had "the full confidence of the minister". As a farewell and always accompanied by the Director General of Armament and Material, Angel Olivares has known personally in the last three days the state in which he leaves the three major armament programs that have been activated during his mandate. 

On Monday, 15 June, he was in Ferrol, together with the Chief of Staff of the Navy, Admiral Teodoro López Calderón and the President of Navantia, Susana Sarriá, to find out the current status of the programme for the five F-110 frigates for the Spanish Navy. Its construction in the shipyard's stands in the Ferrol estuary should begin in February 2022 and will last until 2031, with an investment by the Defense of the order of 3,700 million euros.

The following day, accompanied by the Chief of the Air Force General Staff, Javier Salto, presided in Madrid the signing of the so-called "General Protocol of Action" of the NGWS/FCAS program, a document that establishes the mechanisms of protection of the assets and industrial capacities between the Ministry of Defense and the Spanish companies. Defence, Treasury, Industry and Science and Innovation have committed an initial funding of 110 million euros and 250 million euros per year for the next years.

Yesterday, Wednesday 17th June, with the Army Chief of Staff, General Francisco Javier Varela, travelled to the GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas factory in the town of Alcalá de Guadaira (Seville) to see the current status of the technological program of the 8x8 Wheeled Combat Vehicle (WCV).  The project, in which the Spanish companies Indra, Santa Bárbara Sistemas, SAPA Placencia and Escribano Mechanical & Engineering are participating, is "an essential pillar on which the National Defence is based" and "a strategic and unrenounceable objective for Spain", states Ángel Olivares. But in a few days, the new person who takes a seat in the Secretariat of State for Defence will have the last word.