Promises more than 12,000 million in renew armaments. Today approved to purchase five frigates, and 348 armored

The Government has approved a military spending 7.331 million: 5 frigates, 348 armored and improvements in the fighters Eurofighter

The Government of Pedro Sanchez will complete this Friday, in the largest program of military spending approved in a single year in Spain since two decades ago. The Defence minister, Margarita Robles, has achieved the permission of the Ministry of Finance to engage more than 12,000 million in a plan for the purchase or modernization of military material and strategic. The expense will not be immediate, but periodificado in some cases up to and beyond 2030.

we must go back to 1997, when the Government of José María Aznar acquired the commitment with its european partners to acquire more than 80 fighter-bombers Eurofighter for an amount of up to 13,000 million euros, to be a major investment in a single year.

Only in the Council of Ministers this Friday, is expected to invest 7.331 million in the acquisition of frigates and armoured vehicles, in addition to the modernization of fighter-bombers. This massive investment attached to more than 5,000 million approved in recent months by the Government of Sanchez to helicopters, satellites or submarines, sometimes without an announcement.

Sources from the Ministry of Defence justify this decision of the socialist Government -which contrasts with the rhetoric last of Pedro Sánchez reluctant to military spending – due to the importance of modernising the defensive system of the country and the return it brings for the Spanish industry with positive impact on employment. The effort coincides also with the demand of the president of the USA, Donald Trump, that the european allies of NATO to increase military spending.

The previous minister of Defense, María Dolores of Cospedal, already wanted to launch the program, which it named as “new cycle investor”, but had obstacles in the Ministry of Finance that failed to overcome before the motion of censure.

The most important chapter that Robles put today on the table of the Council of Ministers are the 4.325 million for the purchase of five frigate F-110 for the period 2019-2032. The Ministry considers it necessary to replace six frigates Santa Maria with 35 years of seniority. These five frigates are also a pillar of the strategic plan of the public company Navantia, which needs loads of work to survive. The Ministry considers that the shipyards in Ferrol will particularly benefit from this acquisition, with a global impact in Navantia and its suppliers from 7,000 jobs over nine years. Of them, the estimates are 1,300 direct Navantia and another 2,000 in the auxiliary industry. Will also be generated, in this last other to 3,500 indirect.

The second plan in the amount of this Friday is 348 combat vehicles 8×8 to replace for an end to the obsolete BMR. Already in 2007, the Ministry initiated a docket to replace these armored vehicles after a bomb attack in Lebanon that killed six Spanish military personnel and the vehicle was completely charred.

The new armored will be manufactured in Spain at the plant of the former Santa Barbara de Alcalá de Guadaira and Trubia, of Indra in Aranjuez, and the SAPA in Andoain.

The package is complete with the 906 million in that it raises the ceiling of expenditure foreseen to modernize the Eurofighter. The current ceiling of 9.254 million had already been spent and the new funding will be extended until 2023. The Air force considers it essential to improve a few devices that will provide service until 2045, and with the aim that they can remain competitive with the united States. The Government approves tomorrow, the spending ceiling in order to formalize these three contracts, completing the no less relevant to spending decisions already taken in the past few months.

The most prominent and painful, as stated by Oak trees, is the additional costs that have been assumed in the submarine S-80 by the failures of the past. The Government of Sanchez already has authorized to raise the ceiling for this program in 1.772 million.

it has Also been unlocked by the purchase of 23 helicopters NH-90 by 1.381 million. This is a second batch, up to 2028, which authorized the Council of Ministers on 16 November. The Ministry warned that the 62 helicopters in service in need of renewal will be from 2022 in a state that could “undermine the due safety in flight.”

The modernization of the Chinook helicopters was also compromising 819 million. This was a project that Cospedal wanted to accelerate in vain, because I was already accumulating a significant backlog with Boeing. It’s about improving the technology of 17 helicopters CH-47D the Army.

The faster decision of the Government occurred already in July, the compromise 1.397 million for the renovation of the satellites for military communications. Are 15 payments until 2037 to Hisdesat for “having two satellites of new generation, interoperable with the systems of our allies, and that allows the connectivity of our Armed Forces in both deployments on the national territory, as in international missions”. Current satellites are in their final phase.

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