The Government announced this Monday that the Air Force will from now on also become the Space Army in what the spokeswoman, Isabel Rodríguez, has justified as a “strategic commitment” by the Executive.
The decision to change the name was adopted at the Council of Ministers held this Monday and prior to the NATO summit that Madrid will host this Wednesday and Thursday.
Rodríguez explained that “it is a matter of nomenclature, but behind it is a strategic commitment by this Government to an important industry such as aerospace.”
With this, what is sought is “to make more visible the efforts that we are making from the Government to adapt all the devices and in this case the defense of our country to a new reality and the new challenges that we have before us”, he explained. the minister spokesperson.
Rodríguez explained that other countries have already taken steps in this direction, citing, for example, France, which also has an Air and Space Army, or the United States, which has a Space Force. “It is about reinforcing the Armed Forces, in this case the Air Force, to be able to monitor space and to also guarantee security and freedom of action in it in defense of national interests”, he indicated.
In this sense, he recalled that the National Security Strategy “referred to the need for Spain to strengthen our capabilities in this area” as well as the “commitment” to the aerospace industry in Spain and that is specified in a Strategic Plan in the matter, in addition to the start-up of the Spanish Space Agency.
“This sector is strategic for Spain,” the spokeswoman insisted, because of its production, because of the “ecosystem that it generates around it based on innovation and because of the economic and labor market transformation” that it entails.
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