APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090014-1
Armed Forces
A. Defense establishment
The Spanish armed forces consist of a 201,000-man army; a 43,200-man navy with 33 major combatant ships; and a 34,700-man air force with 999 aircraft, of which 306 are jets. The two paramilitary forces -- the 62,000-man Civil Guard and the 32,000-man Armed Police -- are responsible for maintaining internal security. Andorra, a coprincipality jointly administered by Spain and France, has no armed forces. (S)
Although numerous improvements have been made in each of the three armed services since the advent of the US Military Assistance Program (MAP) in 1953, all are handicapped by shortages in modern equipment and specialist personnel, logistical weaknesses, and insufficient training. The armed forces have no significant offensive capabilities. Without outside military assistance, they could defend Spain and its overseas provinces against a modern aggressor only for a short period. The Spaniard is tough and deeply patriotic, however, and after a limited delaying action the armed forces could be expected to continue resistance to an invader of continental Spain in the form of guerrilla warfare. (S)
Spain is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but because of its position at the entrance of the western Mediterranean and its strategic value in the defense of the southern members of NATO, the United States has had an agreement with Spain since 1953 granting the United States air and naval base rights. Spain is closely linked to Portugal for defense of the Iberian Peninsula by the Treaty of Friendship and Nonaggression, made in March 1939, and an additional protocol of 1940. The protocol commits the two nations to mutual consultations whenever events may appear to constitute a current or potential danger to the security or independence of either country. The close peninsular ties were reiterated on 20 December 1942 in a formal joint proclamation known as the Iberian Pact. Representatives of the general staffs of the two countries meet periodically for discussions, usually each year, alternately in Madrid and Lisbon, possible to coordinate plans for the defense of the peninsula in the event of war. The Spaniards continue to be concerned over development in North Africa that may affect the security of southern Spain and have shown increasing concern since 1963 over what they consider Portugal's unrealistic African policy and its effects on Spanish interests in West Africa. The Spanish North African places of sovereignty (plazas de soberania), or presidios, and the West African province of Spanish Sahara are claimed by Morocco. To protect Spanish interests, ground forces are maintained in Ceuta and Melilla, the most significant presidios, and Spanish Sahara. (C)
1. Military history (U/OU)
The Spanish armed forces are proud of their military traditions. During the 16th century, when Spain ruled an empire, its infantry was feared throughout Europe, and its navy held supremacy of the seas. Spain declined as a great power in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in 1808 its forces were defeated in the Napoleonic invasion of the peninsula. During Napoleon's military occupation that followed, a tradition of guerrilla warfare developed in the Spanish people. Guerrilla action contributed to the final defeat of the French and marked the beginning of doctrines which are still stressed in the Spanish Army.
Proclaiming its dissatisfaction with leftist trends in the Second Republic (1931-36), the army revoked against the government on 18 July 1936. During the 3-year Civil War which followed, almost all of the regular army as well as most officers of the navy supported the Nationalist Forces commanded by Gen. Francisco Franco. The air force emerged from the Civil War as an independent service.
Spain was neutral in World War I and maintained an official policy of nonbelligerence and neutrality in World War II. Personnel in the Spanish Blue Division and Spanish pilots who participated in combat with the Germans against the Soviets on the Eastern Front were officially classified as volunteers. Since World War II the only combat the Spanish armed forces have experienced occurred when the army engaged in a minor conflict, with air and navy support, against
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090014-1
