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Future Artillery 2025: Spanish Army presents artillery modernisation plans

By Nicholas Fiorenza |

GDELS and KNDS unveiled the Nemesis SPH at the International Defence and Security Exhibition 2025 held in Madrid from 12 to 14 May. (Janes/Tristan Sauer)

The Spanish Army presented its plans for modernising its field artillery at Defence iQ's Future Artillery 2025 conference held in London from 20 to 22 May.

After a reorganisation of the Spanish Army at the beginning of the decade, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine resulted in the Army 2035 transformation programme.

Under the current organisation announced in 2020, the Spanish Army was reduced to three first-level commands: a high-readiness land headquarters, NATO Rapid Deployment Corps – Spain (HQ NRDC-ESP); the land force, known as the Fuerza; and Canary Islands command. Canary command has brigade-size forces with one artillery battalion each in the Canaries and in Spain's North African enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta and a battalion in Mallorca responsible for the Balearic islands.

The Fuerza's San Marcial division is in charge of generating and training high-readiness units with specialist capabilities, such as paratroopers, mountain infantry, special forces, army aviation, and an artillery battalion with L118 105 mm towed howitzers. The Castillejos division does the same with its six brigades as well as two L118 towed and four M109A5E self-propelled howitzer (SPH) artillery brigades committed to national and international projection missions. A Spanish M109A5E battery was deployed as part of the Canadian-led NATO Enhanced Forward Presence multinational battlegroup in Latvia in 2017 and an L118 battery as part of the multinational battlegroup in Slovakia in 2024.

Field Artillery Command has an artillery regiment including two armoured artillery battalions – a rocket artillery regiment and an air-defence regiment.

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