Thanks for the article Jonathan...
via Bloomberg.
I thought Spain already had a full inventory of Leopard Tanks. They're being given away so why would this need to pressure their budget?
Regardless, don't laugh. Spain is simply the canary in the coal mine.
Remember this phrase by Irene Lozano...
via Bloomberg.
Spain’s 30 billion-euro ($41 billion) plan to buy heavy armament, including Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH’s Leopard battle tanks, will put the country’s defense budget under pressure, according to a report from opposition party UPyD.I don't quite know what to make of this.
The payments on 19 programs for purchasing military equipment will double from almost 1 billion euros per year in 2014 and 2015, to as much as 2.1 billion euros in 2020, UPyD said in a report citing data from the Defense Ministry. That compares with an annual defense budget of 9 billion euros per year, the report said.
Defense Minister Pedro Morenes said last year he’d reached a deal with companies including Airbus Group NV (AIR), BAE Systems Plc (BA/) and Finmeccanica SpA (FNC) to extend the time frame for payments from 2025 till 2030, reducing the annual bill in the initial years while increasing the total cost. Spain is under scrutiny from the European Union’s Excessive Deficit Procedure, reducing the government’s room for maneuver on spending.
The Defense Ministry’s finances “face a deterioration due to the coming payments,” Irene Lozano, UPyD’s spokeswoman on the Spanish Parliament’s Defense Committee, said in an interview today. “We may end up with an ultramodern army but with little budget for training.”
A spokesman at the Defense Ministry in Madrid didn’t provide a comment when contacted by Bloomberg.
While most of the defense spending was agreed between 1997 and 2004, more than 22 billion euros, out of 29.5 billion euros, was still due to be paid at the end of 2013, according to the report written by Lozano and defense industry analyst Bernardo Navazo.
Spain spends 1 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on defense, according to European Defense Agency data. That compares with 1.9 percent in France and 2.3 percent in the U.K.
I thought Spain already had a full inventory of Leopard Tanks. They're being given away so why would this need to pressure their budget?
Regardless, don't laugh. Spain is simply the canary in the coal mine.
Remember this phrase by Irene Lozano...
“We may end up with an ultramodern army but with little budget for training.”I think we will see that spread to other countries soon.
And why are they still in NATO, I thought NATO required double what they spend, otherwise commonly refereed to as 2% of GDP. And perhaps they should look at procurement costs, if they are spending that much procuring equipment, because I don't they are procuring much equipment at all to be frank and honoust with everyone.
ReplyDeleteOfcourse it is Spain, they are well known for their corrupt government, even the EU was complaining when they gave them money and they 'lost it'. And yes solomon I believed they got them for bassically free ($1) or something silly, I don't see where this money is going, but I would look at their defence contractors and politicians....
You should consult internet, you know google, before posting...
DeleteWell, if german money bailed them out, then Spain buying german tanks and upgrades is natural. Think of it as a German Marshal Plan.
ReplyDelete1% of GDP on defence and still that hurts them. Now that is a bad bad financial situation. Reminds me of my country in 1991.
I am pretty sure the tanks (around 300 of them) came from Netherlands, although there may have been some from Germany as well. This obviously isnt just for land vehicles since they mention 19 contracts and airbus, it is probably for all military procurement. But much of it is probably F35s and other white elephant aeronautics stuff. Airbus has a few of their own...
ReplyDeleteSpain isn't buying the F-35.
DeleteErrr...no, not at all, no command of the F35 since the navy will only need a dozen of them to put on the new LHD and this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_2E Spain have it's own version of the Leopard and in the article I think they are refering to the last units of the Leopard 2E command, the core of those billions would be for navy commands IMHO, the new attack submarines (S-80) and the BAM class patrol vessels.
DeleteIn fact the last units of the Leopard 2E have been delivered in 2008, that's funny...there is some kind of error in this news about Leo command, since the Leo2E tanks are nearly all from local production.
Delete“We may end up with an ultramodern army but with little budget for training.”
ReplyDeleteThis is arlready the case since many years, even in the navy, plus a problem lack of personnel since the military forces have been professionalized. Spain have on the paper a superb small but modern defense force, althought there is many indications that it's just that, defensive and very low operational.
German news is reporting about 150 Leopard 2A7+ to be licensed build in Spain.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2014-04/panzerlieferung-saudi-arabien-gabriel
German weapons have a certain punch:
http://youtu.be/ZCF22RIaej8
(This spot was released on July, 8th 5 AM local time about 17 hours before the start of the game)