A large group of journalists update their knowledges about the Spanish Army

Around 40 journalists, from both, the specialized and the general-interest media, have attended the 27th of February to an updating knowledge day about the Spanish Army at Buenavista Palace, base of the Spanish Army's General Staff in Madrid. Some of the topics developed in the event were The Experimental Brigade, the 8x8 Programme, the state of the missions abroad and Model of Troop Trajectory.

After welcoming Colonel Julio G. Lodeiro, chief of the Spanish Army's Department of Communication, organizer of the event, and of the introduction of the second Chief of General Staff of the Spanish Army, Lieutenant General Miguel Martín Bernardi, the chief of the Division of Plans (DIVPLAN in Spanish), general Luis M. Mejide, has been the responsible of the opening of presentations.

General Mejide has offered a vision about what it will be the operative environment in which the Army will have to fight in the next years and which has also motivated the developing of the Force 2035 concept. This will finish with the setting-up of the 2035 Brigade, whose previous step will be the so-called Experimental Brigade. The "trial" of the concept will be developed at the Legion's Brigade, with bases in Viator (Almería) and Ronda (Málaga), apart from in Ceuta and Melilla. "Choosing the Spanish Legion as Experimental Brigade is due to the combat experience of the unit and its location, closer to the base of the Training and Doctrine Command in Granada, which will play an important role. The supervision of the introduction of the model will be conducted by the chief of the Land Force and it will involve all the Army's Commands", has explained the chief of the DIVPLA.

Afterwards, Colonel Ángel Garcés Bermejo, chief of the Section of Material Resources belonging to the Logistic Division, has exposed to the attending people the current state in which the Vehicle Programme of 8x8 Armored Personnel Carrier (VCR in Spanish) is placed, the platform of combat where it will be coordinated the future 2035 Brigade, as well as its technical characteristics. Among the phase of operative tests, which will start in the first semester of 2019, and 2024, it will start the first phase of handing over this new system of weapons, which is expected to finish with the a service of 300 units.

To continue, the chief of the Campaing Section of the Operations Division, colonel Antonio Matas, discussed which are the missions abroad in which the Spanish Army is currently deployed, as well as its functions and contingents. These are mainly assembled in the Sahel (Mali, Central African Republic and Somalia) and in Middle and Near East (Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon), although it is also involved in cooperative security missions in Mauritania, Tunisia and Senegal; in missions of observation and verification such as the one in Colombia; or its deterrent presence in Latvia; and vigilance and protection of the Turkish air-space; or the advice of high level in Bosnia. "Currently, the Spanish Army has around 1.850 deployed components among all these areas of operations", assured Colonel Matas.

Next, Colonel José M. Llorca, from the Personnel Direction of the Spanish Army, has exposed to the journalists which is the trajectory model of the members of scale troop, making an emphasis in the effors of formation carried out by the Army in order to support them in their dissociation when they are 45 years old in the case of not having the permanent troop situation. In this sense, Colonel Llorca offered information about the support to the professional promotion which is developed through booking posts in public job calls, attending and on-line formation for the access to the military academies (officers and non-commissioned officers) and Forces and Security Corps of the State's Security, as well as for the access test to the Formative Cycles of Higher Education, Professional Formation Courses, languages courses, agreements, etc.

To conclude, the chief of the General Secretary of the Army General Staff, general Salbador Sánchez Tapia, presented to the journalists the programme of the next seminar about "The Army and the future challenges", which will deal with a future environment and the Land Forces in 2035, and that will be developed the 13th and 14th of March at the Army War Academy. Finally, the chief of general staff of the Spanish Army, general Francisco J. Varela Salas, addressed some words to the journalists and he thanked their attendance to the events.