2023-10-11 21:35:38
Millions are once again raining down on the arms industry. At the gates of the military parade on October 12, the acting Government has approved a series of agreements that commit gigantic amounts of money to weapons development. He has done so, again, under the argument of future war threats.
This week’s Council of Ministers gave the green light to the contract for the supply of the so-called High Mobility Rocket Launcher System (SILAM) for the Army, the amount of which amounts to 576,449,112 euros. The agreement includes the acquisition of “launch vehicles, ammunition and initial logistical support and other vehicles and complementary equipment.”
The Government maintains that with the purchase of this weapons system, “characterized by being able to fire, with precision, different high-performance rockets and guided missiles, the Army will be provided with new capabilities, enhancing its operability, also complying with the commitments acquired by Spain within the NATO framework”.
Defense assures that “the capacity of these launcher systems, equipped with flexibility in the configuration of their ammunition and greater precision, will allow the Army to overcome the limitations in range of munitions launched by cannon.” It will thus be able to reach objectives located more than 300 kilometers away “with lower ammunition consumption, in operational contexts increasingly characterized by aerial denial scenarios.”
“Commitments and needs”
The Council of Ministers has also authorized the framework agreement for the acquisition of 155 millimeter extended range ammunition, the howitzers of the same type that Spain has sent to Ukraine and that “allows the Field Artillery of the Army to reach more than 40 kilometers and thus achieve greater protection for our own forces and units, as well as having superiority in the confrontation”.
In this case, the Government refers to the “commitments and needs that have arisen in the current international context”, which requires precisely “replenishing the stocks of ammunition consumed in recent years and guaranteeing their supply under conditions of strategic autonomy.” The estimated value of this framework agreement is 345,447,712 euros.
“These purchases by Defense, like those made by all NATO countries, are part of the new era of global conflict,” says Tica Font, researcher at the Delás Center for Peace Studies. “We are facing an arms race that includes the acquisition of high-tech material, with less military presence on the ground,” she remarked.
The cataract of millions focused on the arms industry also includes another 132,800,000 euros for the “provision of maintenance service and acquisition of spare parts for Army helicopters” and 75,920,238 euros directed to the “supply of artillery ammunition 105 millimeter campaign”.
“The Field Artillery Units of the Army are equipped, among other systems, with 105 mm caliber Howitzers/Cannons, which are necessary for the fulfillment of missions and tasks inherent to the Arm and the international commitments acquired by the Ministry of Defense, especially in the field of NATO Reaction Forces,” alleges the Executive.
Long-term
The honorary president of the Delàs Center, Pere Ortega, has the calculator that is smoking. “It seems risky to me that the current Government approves things that compromise the next executive, regardless of color,” he says with those figures on the table.
“We will have to study how the EU will help pay these debts”
For his part, Font explains that the contracts approved by the Council of Ministers “are going to be paid in the long term”, so “they will mortgage government budgets and increase the debt.” In any case, this researcher stressed another key issue: “We will have to study how the EU will help pay these debts, or if it will ensure that what governments spend on weapons does not count as public debt, so that it does not restrict other types of actions”.
In a document published this Wednesday, Juan Carlos Rois, head of the antimilitarist group Tortuga, points out that “what has been approved through extraordinary procedures so far this year exceeds the initial budget of the Ministry of Defense by 147.58%.”
According to the study carried out by Rois based on the Defense agreements approved by the Council of Ministers since last January, the amount accumulated in these ten months amounts to 22,360 million euros.
“A large part of this spending is approved against future budgets and conditioning the decisions that a decent government willing to change the political course of unanimous militarism could make at a given moment,” explains the Tortuga spokesperson.
Albert Caramés, director of FundiPau, warns from Barcelona about a war “narrative” that began to be written “before the Russian invasion of Ukraine” and indicates “a clear upward trend in military spending by NATO countries.”
The 2% promise
According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Spain increased militarist allocations to over 20 billion euros in 2022, which represented 1.5% of GDP.
In the background is the Government’s promise to increase military spending until it reaches 2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2029. “That is why they are approving so many expenses on weapons programs,” stressed Pere Ortega.
Military spending was among the discrepancies that Unidas Podemos and PSOE showed during the last legislature, although the blood did not reach the river. “We know that between PSOE and PP there is not a big difference in these matters, but they should concern the progressive parties,” says Caramés, who is, in any case, pessimistic. “I am very afraid that these issues will not be in the front rows of the negotiating table,” he lamented.
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