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Spain NATIONAL SECURITY
Armed Forces (1987): Total personnel on active
duty, 320,300, of which about 200,000 conscripts serving for
twelve months. Reserves totaled 1,085,000. Component services
were army of 240,000 troops, navy of 47,300 (including 11,500
marines), and air force of 33,000.
Major Tactical Military Units: Army had five
divisions comprising eleven brigades: one armored division with
two brigades, one motorized division with three brigades, one
mechanized division with two brigades, and two mountain divisions
each consisting of two brigades. Other units included four
independent brigades, two armored cavalry brigades, one airborne
brigade, and one paratroop brigade--and Spanish Legion of 8,500
troops. All stationed in peninsular Spain except 19,000 troops in
North African enclaves, 10,000 in Canary Islands, and 5,800 in
Balearic Islands. Navy combat forces included small carrier
group, submarines, and missile-armed fast attack craft.
Protective forces included destroyers, frigates, corvettes, and
minesweepers. Air force had seven squadrons of fighter-bomber-
interceptors in Combat Air Command (Mando Aereo de Combate--
MACOM), ten squadrons of ground support aircraft in Tactical Air
Command (Mando Aereo Tactico--NATAC), moderate airlift and
refueling capacity in Air Transport Command (Mando Aereo de
Transporte--MATRA), and mixed capabilities in Canary Islands Air
Command (Mando Aereo de Canarias (MACAN).
Military Equipment (1987): Army had about 1,000
tanks, 1,200 armored personnel carriers, 650 other armored
vehicles, 1,300 towed and self-propelled artillery pieces, 28
multiple rocket launchers, 1,200 mortars, 1,000 antitank and
antiaircraft weapons, and 180 helicopters. Main operational units
of navy were one small aircraft carrier, eight submarines, eight
frigates, nine destroyers, ten corvettes, and twelve fast attack
craft. Air force had more than 200 fighter aircraft, mostly of
1960s vintage, but was in process of acquiring 72 advanced F-18
Hornets from United States.
Military Budget (1988): Defense budget of
US$6.93 billion was 2 percent of GDP. Military expenditures among
lowest in NATO on per capita basis and as ratio of GDP.
Foreign Military Treaties: Bilateral military
agreement with United States, signed in 1953 and periodically
renewed, covers United States use of four bases and several
communications sites in Spain. Spain joined NATO in 1982 but
rejected military integration, storage of nuclear weapons on
Spanish territory, and use of Spanish forces abroad.
Internal Security Forces: Principal security
agencies were Civil Guard (force of 65,000 plus 9,000
auxiliaries) policing rural areas and National Police Corps
(Cuerpo Nacional de Policia) of about 50,000 uniformed and 9,000
plainclothes officers in communities of more than 20,000
inhabitants. Special Civil Guard and National Police Corps units
engaged against Basque extremists and other terrorists. These
national forces controlled by Ministry of Interior supplemented
by locally controlled municipal police and regional police forces
of three autonomous communities.
Data as of December 1988
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