« The conflict in Ukraine has highlighted the seams of the defense industry » | Spain

The big week for the Military industry in Spain. The International Defense Fair (Feindef)which this year celebrates its fourth edition with a considerable increase in both international delegations and in exhibition spaces and participating companies, starts Monday with the recent announcement of the government of a Increased expenditure in defense of 10,471 million euros To reach 2% of GDP in investment in security and defense this year that promised with NATO more than a decade ago. Ángel Olivares, Secretary of State for Defense between 2018 and 2020 And currently president of Feindef, he receives El País at his offices in Madrid and offers a vision of what the Russian Ukraine Invasion in 2022which changed the international panorama « radically. » « He highlighted the seams of the defense industry » in the West.

Olivares, who knows well the defense sector of his years as number two of the Minister of the Branch, Margarita Robleshe is convinced that Vladimir Putin, since he came to power, « is at war with the European Union » and that the invasion of Ukraine, of which they have just turned three, has generated an international instability very difficult to overcome because « the European industrial fabric was not prepared for a high intensity war », such as the one that is lived today in European territory.

To overcome these industrial weaknesses, however, Brussels has stepped on the accelerator In the industrial sector of defense, and Spain, as the fourth EU economy, has done the same. « It is evident that security at this time cannot be restricted to a State. It is collective. The security of Spain is the security of the EU. And the security of Europe is ours, » defends Olivares that, precisely for that reason, sees with good eyes the creation of a European army. « It is a path to travel. »

That of this Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, it is an « important » appointment for Spain because it puts the country in the center of the business of the sector, he says. Only yesterday some 12,000 people went to the event. « Feindef is, first, a showcase of the current situation of the defense industry, very overturned in technology. And, second, it is the ideal framework that favors the establishment of relationships of trust between people, institutions and companies (…). And that relationship of trust is the one that facilitates the agreement and strategic alliances, »

It is those ties that Olivares defends to have a powerful defense industry and, as far as possible, with some strategic autonomy to depend as little as possible on third parties. « You have to go towards joint purchases (between different allied and partners) and the development of weapons systems as a result of multinational agreements, » Like the FCAS – A sixth generation hunting project that Spain is developing with France and Germany -, the Eurofighter – a European hunt in which Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany participate – or the new European combat car.

The previous ones are three projects in which community members and allies of NATO are joined and in which the United States is not involved, whose current president, Donald Trump, has marked distances with the rest of the countries of the Atlantic Alliance, making it clear that their main interest is not in Europe, but in the Indo-Pacific and launching the message to the European allies that they have to look at their own safety. It is precisely through these projects as the EU tries to materialize its strategic autonomy.

The main problem at the European level that this former socialist secretary sees in the European defense industry is its fragmentation; And in the Spanish, its size, which is small. « The Spanish industry is very well located in terms of talent, in terms of costs and in terms of competitiveness. And it is located in a lower step in terms of size, » he laments. Therefore, « you have to make known, » he says. And this fair, he considers, is the ideal place.

To overcome fragmentation, which affects almost all surrounding countries, advises to follow the United States concentration policy National Championthat the Government of Pedro Sánchez is forming from companies such as Indra – but paying attention to SMEs, which represent two thirds of the industrial sector of defense in Spain. « It cannot be that business concentration processes excessively reduce competition and reduce the initiative capacity of emerging companies and their flexibility, » he advises; and encourages the public and private sector to « bet much more on innovation and research. »

Hence the importance of this forum. « In Feindef there are relationships that perhaps, without it, would have been a year. » The international situation, the rain of millions for the industry and the opportunities to close stratospheric contracts for Spanish and European companies have filled the expectations of this edition. « Right now there are signed contracts that compromise the expenses of the future by volume of about 50,000 million euros. There is no more stability than that, » illustrates forcefully.

This year the pavilions have increased from two to four compared to the previous 2023 edition – the fair is biannual -, which represents a total of 60,000 square meters of exhibition space. There are 78% more companies with a total of 601 of which 404 are Spanish. International pavilions are increased from one to seven and the presence of more than a hundred foreign delegations from all continents is calculated.

Absence of representatives of Israel

« Growth (from Feindef) is very important, » presumes its president. Of course, Israeli companies, which are usually toe in defense technology, have no presence, announces Olivares, which when talking about the subject the serious countenance becomes.

At the end of April, the SER chain advanced that Spain had closed the purchase to Israel from a game of 15 million bullets for the Civil Guard worth more than six million euros. A fact that did stagger the coalition government for the frontal rejection of adding And what these types of contracts represent in a context of aggression in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombings have caused more than 50,000 dead since October 7, 2023, when the Islamist movement Hamas broke into Israeli territory and carried out a massacre of 1,195 people and kidnapped another 251. After the crisis for this controversial contract, President Pedro Sánchez ordered to rescind him.

« There will be no presence of Israel at the fair, » Olivares announced days ago. There were two invited companies, but « it was considered later (of the controversy) that their participation was not convenient. They will not participate, » ditch without giving more details. And at the opening of Monday, no trace of them.