The Spanish Ministry of Defence has released a list of essential capabilities that must be prioritised, including the need for a new 8×8 armoured infantry fighting vehicle to replace the existing 6×6 BMR fleet.
Following several years of severe budget restraints brought on by the economic recession, the MoD’s release of the vehicle RFI provides a glimpse of optimism for local manufacturing and long-delayed military modernisation. The original call for information on an 8×8 platform occurred six years ago under a project aimed at upgrading the IFV fleet.
The 8×8 project has been budgeted at $45 million and companies involved in the competition are likely to include General Dynamics-Santa Bárbara Sistemas (GDELS-SBS), Nexter, Patria, Lockheed Martin, ARTEC (Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall), Iveco, Fiat and Oto Melara. While the projected number of vehicles to be produced has not been confirmed, the original RFI intended to see at least 300 vehicles delivered. The new contract is likely to be for a significantly smaller volume but catering to a range of modular capabilities
The release of the MoD’s plan on May 29 was welcomed by the Spanish Association of Defence, Aeronautics and Space Technologies (TEDAE), Spain’s primary defence industry association, which stated that the national industry will finally have a tool similar to those of its competitors and possess a key resource for defending the technological and national industrial base.
In June, Iveco Defence Vehicles signed a long-delayed contract to supply more than 700 military trucks to Spain, including tankers and recovery vehicles.
