Spain is required to increase its defensive spending quickly

Defense spending in Spain during the past year reached only 1.28% of the country’s gross domestic product, to be the lowest in NATO (NATO). The Madrid government defends itself fiercely, as Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez responded, saying: “Look at what Spain is doing with money, and you will find it a reliable partner.”

Indeed, Spain’s spending is increasing, and it is on its way to achieving Sanchez’s promise to reach the alliance’s goal of 2% by 2029, although this goal was set in 2014, and most other European Union countries have already achieved it.

But the problem is that this goal has already pardoned, and with the increasing fears of the possibility of US President Donald Trump withdrawing the American security cover from Europe, Spain is under severe pressure from its European partners to spend more and quickly.

Military update

It may be surprising that the low Spanish defense budget will return to the era of dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled the country from 1936 to 1975, and who, after leading the armed forces to power, was able to ignore it.

The military update in Spain did not start except with the elected governments after Spain joined NATO in 1982. These governments canceled national service, established a professional army, and bought American planes.

But voters are not enthusiastic about military spending, and in the austerity budgets that followed the financial crisis in 2008, spending fell to only 0.9% of GDP in 2014, the year in which Russia attacked Ukraine for the first time.

“The defense policy has always been a problem for governments, no one believed that we needed to increase military spending,” said retired officer, Felix Artga, who is now working at the Royal Institute of “Elkano” Research.

Additional resources

Indeed, the spending increased again only in this contract, especially since Sanchez hosted the NATO annual summit in Madrid in 2022.

The following year, the defense budget increased, but reaching the goal of 2% requires doubling the annual spending to 36.5 billion euros, and in normal times, this will be difficult.

Unlike many European countries that are in a stagnation, Spain grows at a good rate of about 3%, so finding additional resources for defense should be possible. The problem is political in the first place. Sanchez has led minority governments since 2018, and has failed to obtain approval of the budget last year, and it may fail again this year.

This makes it difficult to repeat the increase in defensive spending approved in the 2023 budget.

Spending

By reorganizing spending, the Spanish government announced this month an additional spending of 400 million euros to raise the wages of relatively low military personnel, but the lack of a long -term budget makes defense planning and large new purchasing deals more difficult.

When it comes to military power, Spain’s performance is better than spending. The number of its armed forces is about 116 thousand soldiers, and this is a relatively low number, but these forces are trained and well equipped with at least the traditional standards, and they have high efficiency.

Equipment includes Eurofighter fighters, transport aircraft and amphibious ships designed to land the forces. About 3,500 Spanish soldiers participate in the missions of NATO in Eastern Europe, while others are working in United Nations peacekeeping operations.

The Spanish Prime Minister was a strong supporter of Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian war, where he visited Kiev again on February 24, Madrid sent tanks, trained 7,000 Ukrainian soldiers, and this year, like last year, agreed to donations of one billion euros of ammunition and missiles.

Plan

Retired officer, Felix Artga, explained that to counter security expectations in Europe, Spain needs stronger air defense systems, new planes and tanks, and much larger investments in drones and cyber war.

Some of these plans are on the right path, but others are not.

Despite Sanchez’s criticism of Trump’s policies, Spanish officials are confident of the strategic importance of the Rota Naval Base in the south of the country, where six American destroyers are anchored under an agreement renewed in 2023 with the United States.

Regarding the re -armament, the margin of maneuvering of the Prime Minister appears to be narrow, because his coalition partners are from the hard -line left against America and NATO. About “Economist”

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to support

The Conservative People’s Party in Spain supports a significant increase in defensive spending, but Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was hesitant to request his parliamentary support.

And most of all, the government wants to avoid having to reduce social spending in order to finance the defense, which may dismantle its central left coalition.

. The Spanish government announced an additional spending of 400 million euros to raise the wages of relatively low military.

. 116 thousand soldiers, the number of armed forces in Spain.