The General Directorate of Armament and Material (DGAM) through OFICAEX (External Support Office) organized the Industry Day with the Spanish Defense Industry and representatives of the various programs of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA).
Industry Day was held on Thursday, March 14, 2019 at the NSPA headquarters in Capellen, Luxembourg. With this Industry Day OFICAEX continues its work to support the international activity of the Defense Industry of Spain, in this case in a forum as relevant as NATO, and more specifically its NSPA agency. This work of OFICAEX emanates from the National Defense Directive 2012, in which OFICAEX is entrusted with the objective of Institutional Support for the Internationalization of the Spanish Defense Industry (AI3DE).
The participation of a total of 36 companies of the Defense Industry of Spain in this Conference endorses the success of organization by OFICAEX.
The Industry Day was opened by Mr. Peter Dohmen (NSPA General Manager), the Ambassador of Spain in Luxembourg Mr. Bernardo de Sica Escoda, Mr. Patrick Fesquet (NSPA Director of Procurement) and by General Luis López (Chief of OFICAEX) .
In his speech, Ambassador D. Bernardo de Sica Escoda addressing all representatives of NSPA highlighted “… the Spanish Defense Industry is a partner you can trust …”. For his part, Mr. Peter Dohmen highlighted the excellent opportunities for collaboration that exist in the NATO environment for the Defense Industry of Spain, either with NATO itself, with member countries or with allied countries. Opportunities and collaborative projects that are always determined by a “win-to-win” perspective for both parties.
On the other hand, General López (JOFICAEX) in his presentation to NSPA of the Spanish Defense Industry highlighted the international vocation of the same, highlighting its main magnitudes: a turnover of 10,000 million euros, representing a 6 % of Industrial GDP of Spain and an export rate higher than 80%.
The conference also had the collaboration of the Spanish Liaison Office in the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), whose Chief in Capellen (Luxembourg), Lieutenant Colonel Remiro, during his speech stressed the mutual benefit that the collaboration between the Defense Industry of Spain and the NSPA provides both Spain and NATO, and the excellent opportunities for growth that for the Industry implies its cooperation with the various NSPA programs.
Industry Day included also end user perspective about NSPA services, through presentation of 3 of the main components of Spanish Armed Forces: Navy, Army and UME (Military Emergency Unit). In which diverse experiences of the last years in acquisition processes and projects were collected through the agency NSPA of these units of the Spanish army.
The next block of the conference was the presentation to the representatives of NSPA of the capabilities of the Defense Industry of Spain, with the aim that NSPA had first hand information on the capabilities that the Defense Industry of Spain can provide in 7 key strategic areas: Armament and Ammunition, Terrestrial sector, Naval sector, Aerospace sector, Electronics and Communications, Logistics and Services and Consulting and Engineering.
For this purpose, OFICAEX made a selection of 27 companies as the most relevant representatives of the capabilities that the Defense Industry can provide to NATO. Thus, AIRBUS DEFENSE, ESCRIBANO, EXPAL, NAMMO, SAES, HISDESAT, TECNOBIT, HISPANO VEMA and ISDEFE among others, had the opportunity to present their capabilities and latest technologies and developments to NSPA.
In this context, at the presentation of Hispano Vema, Rafael Arruga (Director of Business Development) highlighted his capabilities in CBRN decontamination systemssolutions, developed on the premises of Innovation, ultimate CBRN Decontamination Technologies and a modular and customized design concept to the specific needs of each client and scenario.
During his presentation, Rafael Arruga focused on the challenge for CBNR and Hazmat teams of the increasing threats of hazmat incidents (with chemical, biological or radiological agents) suppose the need to standardize and homogenize (through modular systems) and scalable) their response capabilities. In this sense, the decontamination of people (both valid and ambulatory), the decontamination of electronic equipment (protection of critical infrastructures) and the decontamination of chemical agents (both CWAs in war scenarios or terrorist attacks and TICs in environments of industrial accidents).
The Conference also had individual meetings between companies in the Defense Industry of Spain with representatives of the main NSPA programs:
- LA: Aviation Support Programme
- LB. General and Cooperative Services Programme
- LD. Communications, Air and Missile Defence Programme
- LK. Operational Logistics Planning and Support Programme
- LM. Air and Land Combat Systems Programme
- SOC. Southern Operational Centre
During these meetings, the heads of NSPA of these programs had the opportunity to learn in detail and first hand the capabilities of the participating Spanish companies.
In summary, the first edition of the Spain Industry Day at NSPA was a resounding success, as highlighted by both General López (JOFICAEX) and Peter Dohmen (NSPA General Manager) in his final speech, highlighting the extensive participation of Spanish companies, the relevance of the NSPA representatives that attended the presentations and meetings and the enormous development potential that for the Spanish Defense Industry implies its relationship with NATO in general and NSPA in particular.
