The Chief of Staff of the Army chairs a monographic meeting on the upcoming 'Fuerza 35'

Material exhibition at experimental stage

Material exhibition at experimental stage

Material exhibition at experimental stage

On 19th January, the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Francisco Javier Varela Salas, chaired a meeting to know first-hand the state of the 'Fuerza 2035' project and the BRIEX Experimental Brigade.

'Fuerza 35' is the Army military innovation to provide an efficient response to the challenges that are to be faced until 2035. Its aim is to achieve a modern terrestrial high-quality force, that incorporates cutting-edge technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, or 4G/5G information technologies, among others. First and foremost, it is a project for change intended to modernise the force and provided the necessary terrestrial combat capacities to the Joint Force, contributing to the international security and defence commitments adopted by Spain in equal conditions to those of our partners and allies.

As part of the 'Fuerza 35' project, the BRIEX Experimental Brigade is the centre that will integrate the conceptual contributions from the Doctrine Command (MADOC), the Terrestrial Force Experimentation Plan (FUTER), the new materials and technologies purchases made by the Army Logistics Support Command (MALE) coming from companies and universities, and the Communication and Information Systems Command (JCISAT). Responsibles for the different areas attended this meeting in Almería.

During the meeting, a revision of the already-achieved milestones has been made, especially from a normative perspective, emphasising the fact that the BRIEX involves the whole Army. The experimentation staged entered on 1st November. It is expected that the 8x8 VCR demonstrator vehicles are available by June. It will be a latest-technology platform for operational experimentation. This stage is expected to be finished by the end of this year. The Command and Control Function will play a key role, providing more speed and precicion to the operations in the battlefield, making the 'Fuerza 35' a highly useful tool for the Spanish interests.

Finally, the BRILEG has presented some of the material that are already under experimentation phase. Prominent among them are: the Command and Control System for Small Units (BMS) with Windows 10, that allows the display of units on the field by means of a touch screen, that can also incorporate augmented reality, as well as the information transmitted by the drones (RPAS) during the flight. Likewise, dynamic demonstration of the Alakran mortar carrier vehicle could be seen, LR-1 Robotics. Several drone models were also exhibited, among them, the micro RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) PRS Black Hornet 2 in its evolution BH3 that includes some improvements over the ones currently used (reach and autonomy), and Huginn X1 in its evolution to 2 (greater reach).

The Chief of the Terrestrial Force, Lieutenant General Juan Gómez de Salazar, was appointed as director of the experimentation process. 2nd Brigade of the Legion 'King Alfonso XIII' was declared Experimental Brigade (BRIEX), responsible for performing the experimentation actions that facilitate the design of the 2035 Brigade.

One of the main conclusions was the need to work jointly with the terrestrial field companies from the Defence Industry and with Universities to identify innovation and useful devices for 'Fuerza 35'. The first 35 Brigades are expected to be ready in 2024, fully provided with advanced materials and technologies. It will be an intermediate stage inside a process of permanent evolution that aims at providing terrestrial forces with organisational and technological capacities that give them superiority by 2035.