Spanish armed forces

	Spanish Armed Forces ; Fuerzas Armadas Españolas
guide
Commander in Chief :	King Felipe VI.
Defense Minister:	Margarita Robles Fernández
Military Commander:	Chief of Staff Miguel Ángel Villarroya
Military strength
Active soldiers:	121,000 (as of 2019)
Reservists:	15,500
Conscription:	no
Resilient population:	Total (men and women; ages 20-49): 15,057,821 (2005; estimate)
Eligibility for military service:	at least 20 years of age,
household
Military budget:	€ 11.5 billion (as of 2019)
Share of gross domestic product :	0.9% (as of 2019)
history

The Spanish Armed Forces ( Spanish Fuerzas Armadas Españolas ) are the armed forces of Spain .

assignment

The Spanish Armed Forces have the mandate to protect the territorial integrity of the State of Spain and to guarantee national defense in the event of war . In peacetime they contribute to Spain's alliance obligations within NATO through training, provision and supply of the military .

organization

The Spanish Armed Forces are divided into

Army ( Ejército de Tierra )
Marine ( Armada Española ) with the Marine Infantry Infantería de Marina
Air Force ( Ejército del Aire )

as well as the paramilitary Guardia Civil and the Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME, Military Emergency Aid Unit) founded in 2005 .

Other independent units are the Royal Guard ( Guardia Real ) and the Spanish Legion, which reports directly to the High Command .

The Supreme Commander of the Spanish Armed Forces is the Spanish King , currently Felipe VI. Spain's military budget is $ 15.8 billion. Since 2000 it has been possible for men and women who speak Spanish as their mother tongue but are not Spanish citizens to join the Spanish Armed Forces. Conscription was abolished in 2001.

Recruitment and training

The Spanish armed forces have been a professional army since 2001 . Since 1999 there have also been voluntary reservists (so-called reservistas voluntarios ).

Conditions for registration:

Spanish citizenship or citizenship of a Spanish-speaking country (essentially Hispanic America and Equatorial Guinea )
Of all civil rights have
Have no criminal record
Age between 18 and 29 (professional soldiers), between 18 and 32 (support staff) or between 18 and 22 years (training as an officer and non-commissioned officer )
For officer training, you need access authorization to study at a college or university

Crew numbers and equipment

Team numbers

Data after

Army: 92,000
Navy: 27,000
Air Force: 24,500

equipment

Data to:

army

Leopard 2E

approx. 570 main battle tanks
- 244 M60A3TTS , 108 Leopard 2 A4 , 219 Leopard 2E
approx. 2200 armored wheeled and tracked vehicles (tank destroyers, armored personnel carriers, reconnaissance tanks, transport tanks)
- 84 Centauro , 261 Pizarro , 208 Santa Bárbara VEC-M1, 566 Santa Bárbara BMR, 1200 M113
50 attack helicopters
- 24 Eurocopter Tiger (16 in service, 8 incoming), 40 Bölkow Bo 105

marine

1 aircraft carrier
- 17 AV-8B Harrier II Plus fighter aircraft
3 submarines
11 frigates
7 anti-mine vehicles
3 dropships

air force

approx. 160 combat aircraft
- 73 Eurofighter Typhoon (41 in service, 32 incoming), 86 EF / A-18 “Hornet” A + / B +
approx. 130 transport aircraft
- u. a. 11 Lockheed C-130 , 13 CASA C-295 , 20 CASA CN-235 , 78 C-212 , 3 Airbus A310

no nuclear weapons

Current assignments abroad

Spanish troops in Afghanistan

The Spanish armed forces deployed abroad are currently distributed as follows:

European Union Forces (EUFOR)

NAVFOR Somalia ( Somalia ): 395 soldiers

Under the direction of NATO

ISAF ( Afghanistan ): 1555 soldiers ( Spanish participation in the war in Afghanistan )

Under the direction of the United Nations (UN)

UNIFIL ( Lebanon ): 1,100 soldiers

As of November 8, 2011

literature

Jane's Defense Weekly , Country Survey: Spain, JDW April 18, 1992, p.655-onwards

Web links

Commons : Spanish Armed Forces - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Official website of the Spanish Ministry of Defense (Spanish)
Spanish Armed Forces Recruitment Site (Spanish)
Foro Militar General (Spanish)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c "Defense Expenditure of NATO Countries (2012-2019)", Press Release Communique PR / CP (2019) 069, NATO Public Diplomacy Division, June 29, 2019 (PDF, 128kB)
^ ^A ^b CIA World Factbook , Military Section from the United States Article. Date of discovery: March 24, 2008.
↑ Fischer World Almanac 2005
↑ GlobalDefence.net ( Memento from April 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
↑ El Eurofigther celebra sus primeras 100,000 horas de vuelo. In: ejercitodelaire.mde.es. January 28, 2011, archived from the original on March 13, 2012 ; Retrieved January 30, 2011 (Spanish).
↑ isaf.nato.int ( Memento from May 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Defensa recibirá los 100 RG-31 antes de finales de año y enviará 61 a Afganistán y 13 al Líbano (Spanish)

[NATO_(offiziell;_Stand:_2019)-1] "Defense Expenditure of NATO Countries (2012-2019)", Press Release Communique PR / CP (2019) 069, NATO Public Diplomacy Division, June 29, 2019 (PDF, 128kB)

[[[CIA_World_Factbook]]-2] A ^b CIA World Factbook , Military Section from the United States Article. Date of discovery: March 24, 2008.

[3] Fischer World Almanac 2005

[4] GlobalDefence.net ( Memento from April 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

[5] El Eurofigther celebra sus primeras 100,000 horas de vuelo. In: ejercitodelaire.mde.es. January 28, 2011, archived from the original on March 13, 2012 ; Retrieved January 30, 2011 (Spanish).

[6] saf.nato.int ( Memento from May 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Defensa recibirá los 100 RG-31 antes de finales de año y enviará 61 a Afganistán y 13 al Líbano (Spanish)