New contract on the horizon for Airbus. The Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday an agreement to buy 16 new aircraft from the French multinational for 1,700 million. They are devices that are assembled at the company’s industrial facilities in Seville. Specifically, the Ministry of Finance has authorized the Ministry of Defense to extend the spending limits established in the general budgetary law to acquire spending commitments charged to future years.
The Air and Space Army will acquire, through the MPA program, which was provided for in the 2023 General Budget, six modified Airbus C295W aircraft for maritime patrol missions. The objective, explains the Government, is “to maintain surveillance and reconnaissance, search and rescue and maritime security capabilities”, for which it is “necessary to acquire aerial platforms, in sufficient numbers, with the appropriate configuration and the necessary integrated logistical support, which allows us to continue guaranteeing national commitments and continue carrying out the assigned missions”.
In addition, Aire will purchase, through the VIGMA program, another ten modified Airbus C295W aircraft for maritime surveillance missions and search and rescue missions.
This future contract, details the Executive, seeks “the recovery and expansion of maritime patrol capacity as a result of the withdrawal of P.3M aircraft.” For this “it is intended to acquire a fleet of aircraft that allows the Air Force and Space have a system with the characteristics and capabilities established in the requirements of the General Staff.”
The step taken this Tuesday is the expansion of the spending limit. The signing of the contract would arrive in the coming months, explain military sources, predictably after the elections on July 23.
The Ministry of Defense has received authorization from the Treasury to modify the established limits and acquire spending commitments charged to future years between 2024 and 2037, specifically in the “real investment” budgetary application.
Airbus is still awaiting another large contract with the Air Force: the renewal of the F-18 of the Iberian Peninsula and its replacement by Eurofighter. Last year the Government and the company signed the agreement to replace the fighters destined for the Canary Islands, a contract that amounted to more than 2,000 million.
