Spain's Council of Ministers has approved two contracts worth more than €4.84 billion in all, one for systems against uncrewed aircraft and one for a new high-mobility air defence system, Zona Militar reports.
The counter-drone purchase has an estimated value of just over €1.45 billion. The council said the armed forces need it to counter the threat from hostile use of drones both in Spain and outside the country.
Almost €3.4 billion, spread over ten annual payments, is for a new air defence missile system to begin replacing the MIM-23 HAWK batteries. The chosen system must be highly mobile and able to deal with different threats, including missiles.
Zona Militar lists MBDA's CAMM-ER, Diehl's IRIS-T SLM or SLX and Aselsan's HISAR-O+ among the possible candidates for the air defence contract.
