The Spanish government's cryptic language for buying weapons systems
The PSOE-Unidas Podemos coalition government sometimes uses a convoluted, sometimes enigmatic, even cryptic vocabulary that one has to try to decipher, especially when it has to make public acquisitions or investments in weapons systems for the Armed Forces.
One of the agreements to which the Council of Ministers has just given the green light consists of approving the modernisation of who knows how many fighter planes from the Air Force's fleet of 70 Eurofighters and the purchase of an unknown number of units of the aforementioned fighter model, the most advanced and powerful in Spain's military air fleet. Both decisions seem to emerge from the vague official vocabulary.
The Secretary of State for Communication of the Presidency of the Government is supposed to reflect and disseminate in understandable language the agreements adopted by the Councils of Ministers. But the organisation that Francisco Vallés, a former deputy of the Socialist Party of Catalonia, has been directing since last July, does not do so. For example, here is just one example.
Among the ministerial agreements of 14 December, there is one that was consigned to the Ministry of Finance, which "authorises the acquisition of spending commitments charged to future years in accordance with the provisions of article 47 of Law 47/2003, of 26 November, General Budgetary Law, to enable the Ministry of Defence to carry out the modernisation, evolution and logistical support of the EF-2000 (III) combat aircraft, as well as the Halcón project" What does (III) mean? And the Halcón project, what is it about?
Relax. You haven't read the best part yet. The informative reference drafted by the Secretary of State for Communication includes an extension of the content, which is supposed to clarify the meaning of EF-2000 (III) and what the Halcón project consists of. You fools!
The supposed clarification reads as follows: "The Council of Ministers has approved an Agreement authorising the acquisition of spending commitments to be charged to future financial years in accordance with the provisions of article 47 of the General Budgetary Law 47/2003 of 26 November, to enable the Ministry of Defence to carry out the modernisation, evolution and logistical support of the EF-2000 (III) combat aircraft, as well as the Halcón project". It repeats the same thing as before! Admirable!
Well, not exactly the same. To add a little more confusion, at the end of the repeated paragraph, "... and the reprogramming of the S-80 submarine" has been added. We were talking about aircraft and now, by the stroke of a pen, submarines appear as well!
But it doesn't end there. A second paragraph of the extension of contents tries to add a little light and emphasises: "In this way, the Ministry of Defence has been authorised to acquire spending commitments for the financial years 2022 to 2035 in the budget application "Real investments", with an initial allocation, at the linkage level, in the budget for the year 2021 of 2,341,587,286.90 euros". Don't panic, that is the figure that is entered....
Further amounts in billions of euros between the years 2022-2035 are then quoted as the maximum commitment limit to be acquired. But there is no breakdown of the amount allocated to the modernisation of the EF-2000 Eurofighters already in service - if such a measure exists - nor to the Hawk project, which still does not indicate what it is about. Let us clarify. This is the name given to the purchase of some twenty new Eurofigther fighters, the aircraft developed by Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain.
The 20 new EF-2000 Eurofighters are absolutely necessary to replace the Boeing F/A-18Cs, which were bought second-hand in 1999 from the US Navy - where they had been in service since 1986 - and which have already completed 35 years in flight. These aircraft make up the 462 Squadron of the 46th Wing, are stationed at the Gando air base on the Canary Island of Gran Canaria, and their operational life expires in 2023.
The Council of Ministers has more steps to approve in relation to what it has just authorised, especially the contract between the Ministry of Defence and Airbus Defence and Space. The investment is estimated at around 2,000 million euros and is vital for the continuity of the Spanish Eurofighter integration plant, which is located in Getafe (Madrid) and which, thanks to the new batch of aircraft, will extend its existence and the jobs it provides until at least 2030.
But even if the contractual relationship is signed immediately, the first of the new EF-2000s with new AESA Captor-E active scanning radars - with increased range and target detection capability - and other new equipment will not be in the hands of the Spanish Air Force until the middle of this decade. The solution taken by Combat Command is to rotate F-18 aircraft from the 12th Wing in Torrejón (Madrid) and the 15th Wing in Zaragoza to the Canary Islands. These are the consequences of leaving decisions to the end, as we are used to from President Pedro Sánchez and his Defence Minister, Margarita Robles.
Let's return to the surprise appearance on the surface of the S-80 submarine in the Council of Ministers' extended content. Not a single word about what "reprogramming the S-80 submarine" entails. It is a euphemism that means pouring millions more euros into its construction. Possibly it also means extending the delivery dates to the Navy for each of the four submersibles contracted to Navantia.
In short, without revealing any secrets, the Secretary of State for Communication should be more inclined to gather the information provided by the Ministry of Defence in a professional manner and include it in the reference of each Council of Ministers. Failing that, it should demand it. What will happen when a journalist asks the government spokeswoman, Isabel Rodríguez, about a defence issue at the press conference following the Council of Ministers? Will she ignore the issue?