Spain National Security
Spanish soldiers
DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, when Spain was the most
powerful
nation in Europe, the Spanish armed forces enjoyed a
formidable
reputation. The military decline that set in during the
Thirty
Years' War (1618-48) brought an end to Spain's ascendancy.
During
the nineteenth century, the ineffectiveness of the Spanish
armed
forces was demonstrated repeatedly by humiliating defeats
abroad.
A decadent monarchy and the weak and corrupt civil
governments of
the time cemented the military's involvement in domestic
politics; interventions by an inflated and underemployed
officer
corps became a recurrent feature of Spanish political
life.
At the conclusion of the 1936-39 Civil War, the
victorious
Nationalist army of General Francisco Franco y Bahamonde
(dictator of Spain, 1939-75) was a large and hardened
fighting
force. Franco maintained direct command over the army,
which he
employed as an instrument for suppressing opposition to
his
regime. The country, however, exhausted economically after
the
Civil War, could not afford a large military
establishment. Its
size was steadily reduced, and it lacked the means to
fight a
modern conflict. Beginning in 1953, military assistance
furnished
by the United States in conjunction with the base
agreement
between the two countries helped to reverse the
deterioration of
the armed forces.
The constitutional monarchy that emerged on Franco's
death in
1975 was threatened by the rebelliousness of many senior
officers
who had failed to come to terms with the new democratic
climate.
Nevertheless, under the 1978 Constitution and subsequent
enactments, the mission and the structure of the armed
forces
were gradually transformed. Funds were allotted for new
equipment
and for improved training. The career system was
rationalized and
pay increases were granted. The three individual service
ministries were replaced by a single Ministry of Defense
with a
civilian at its head. The Chief of the Defense Staff (Jefe
del
Estado Mayor de la Defensa--JEMAD), the highest military
officer,
acted in a supportive role to the minister of defense in
carrying
out military policies.
Further reforms were introduced by the Socialist
government
of Felipe Gonzalez Marquez, who came to power in 1982. The
army
was reconstituted as five divisions comprising eleven
brigades,
plus four independent brigades. The distinction between
forces,
earmarked to protect against external threats, and
regional
defense units, organized to maintain internal order, was
abandoned. From a manpower strength of 280,000, when the
Socialists took office, the army was scheduled to be
reduced by
more than one-third to 195,000 effectives by 1991.
The navy and the air force, less burdened by personnel
costs,
were farther along in their modernization programs than
the army.
In 1987 the navy had a personnel strength of about 47,300,
including 11,500 marines; its fleet of warships in 1988
included
a new aircraft carrier. The air force, with a manpower
level of
33,000, had an aging inventory of 18 squadrons of
interceptor and
ground attack aircraft. More advanced F-18 Hornets,
seventy-two
of them purchased from the United States, were scheduled
for
delivery in the 1986 to 1990 period.
Spain's long-established policy of neutrality ended
with its
conditional accession to the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
(NATO) in 1982. Spain's membership, subject to conditions
that
circumscribed the Spanish role, remained in doubt,
however, until
it was ratified by a public referendum in 1986. Spain
abstained
from participating in the NATO integrated command
structure,
continued to ban nuclear weapons from Spanish soil, and
excluded
the use of Spanish forces outside its own territory. The
Spanish
government also insisted on the removal of a wing of
United
States fighter planes based near Madrid, which had formed
a part
of NATO's South European defenses.
In spite of the modernization program, the Spanish
armed
forces, especially the army, were still deficient in
relation to
other NATO nations. Defense spending remained well below
the
average for the alliance. Nevertheless, Spain was
potentially
capable of making a significant contribution to NATO's
defenses.
Moreover, its accession to the treaty was expected to
invigorate
the Spanish military establishment and to contribute to
its
emergence as a modern force with a well-defined mission as
part
of Europe's collective security.
Data as of December 1988
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