The increase in military expenditure will serve to raise the salary to the soldiers, replenish ammunition and reinforce the CNI secret service | Spain

The increase in the number of military and the improvement of their remuneration, with 679 million, The modernization of training systems and simulation, with 928.27, or the recovery of the ammunition and explosives reserve, seriously diminished by the deliveries to Ukraine, with 564.98, are among the items that are more budget within of the Industrial and Technological Plan for Security and Defense. In addition, the CNI Secret Service will receive 565 million to strengthen its cybersecurity area and increase its deployment abroad. This plan, that yesterday approved the Council of Ministers And this Wednesday has been sent by the Government, the NATO and the EU, for its examination, it plans to inject 10,471 million euros in the defense budgets to reach this year to 2% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in military spending.

The document details where this strong growth of military spending will come from that, according to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will be done without cutting social spending or raising taxes and also increasing the deficit or public debt. The largest departure (2,819.17 million) will come from the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (Fla), which until now resorted to The autonomous communities to finance and that it will no longer be so necessary to be able to do it in the markets. Other important quantities will leave expenses assigned in the 2023 budgets, extended until today, which are no longer necessary in 2025 (1,744.89 million); of the reorientation of funds of the EU recovery and resilience (1,357); of reimbursements and new loans from the Ministry of Industry (1,680.33) or the contingency fund (1,395.10).

In that line, the Council of Ministers on Tuesday approved a credit transfer for 2,819.1 million to the Ministry of Industry to “finance contributions reimbursable to companies for the development of qualified technological projects related to defense programs”. It is about enhancing the national industrial basis so that it has the capacity to develop “great technological projects considered of high strategic interest in areas and technologies of great scientific-technical efficiency, whose industrial dimension obliges to mobilize a large amount of highly qualified material and human resources,” according to the Government.

The plan foresees that the military spending of Spain rises this year to 33,123 million euros, going from 1.43% of GDP in 2024 to 2% in 2025, anticipating this goal in four years, which was planned to be achieved in 2029. Despite this, the document ensures that “Spain will not join any arms escalation”. Although the objective is that the expense is executed before the end of the year, many of the new weapons programs have a duration of at least five years, until 2030.

These programs include the New Tactical Radio of the Army (350 million), the MC3 control and control system (241 million), the Espía Paz (200) satellite, the new ship of electronic war (105), the modernization of the F-100 frigates (225), the new combat support vessel (100), the future FCAS combat air system (216), the new vehicle of chains (200) or seven aircraft Fire fighting amphibians (661.39). The plan also includes a program to improve the capacities of the Ministry of Interior in areas such as cyberin -glear or critical infrastructure, endowed with 189 million.

President Sánchez informed on Wednesday the NATO Secretary General. Mark Rutte, who celebrated « the announcement of reaching 2% more quickly. To keep sure we all need to increase investment in defense: build a stronger, more fair and more lethal NATO, » he added, in a message through social networks.

NATO’s pressure has been decisive for the Government to decide to advance this year the objective of reaching 2%, four earlier than so far planned. Rutte himself said at the end of March that the Spanish government wanted to « reach 2% in summer », which was denied by Moncloa, But the truth is that, after Italy and Belgium, two countries that had not fulfilled the objective set at the 2014 Wales Summit, announced that they would do so in 2025, Spain had been left alone. In June, the NATO Summit is planned in The Hague (Netherlands), the first after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, in which a new military spending target will be set, predictably above 3%.

The plan is articulated in five pillars: the improvement of the working conditions of the troop and sailor, as well as the preparation and equipment of the armed forces, with an endowment of 3,712.49 million euros, 35.45% of the total; the development and acquisition of new telecommunication and cybersecurity capabilities, with 3,262.76 million, 31.16%; the manufacture and purchase of new defense and deterrence equipment, with 1,962 million, 18.75%; the reinforcement of the capacities of the Armed Forces to support the management of emergency and natural disasters, with 1,751.53 million, 16.73%; and the improvement of the security conditions of the more than 3,000 Spanish military deployed in 16 missions abroad, with 328.74 million, 3.14%. The global amount must be subtracted 547.36 million that will enter the Treasury of Settings in the payments of the 56 modernization programs that are already in progress, to which 31 new ones will now be added.

The Government ensures that 87% of the investment will be allocated to Spanish companies in all autonomous communities and that this will increase Spanish GDP between 0.4 and 0.7 percentage points, increasing in 18% the R&D (research, development and innovation) of the State and creating 96,000 jobs, 36,000 directs, most of them qualified.