Catalan company Ficosa partners with Indra to develop vision systems for military armored vehicles.

BarcelonaThe Catalan multinational Ficosa, headquartered in Viladecavalls and primarily dedicated to the manufacture of vision and detection components for automobiles, announced this Friday a collaboration agreement with Indra, the Spanish defense giant whose main shareholder is the State. This is a declaration of intent to collaborate—and, therefore, a possible preliminary step to a formal contract—focused on the Catalan company's electro-optical vision and surveillance systems for VCR 8x8 Dragón and VAC armored military vehicles.

These devices, which combine electronics and optics, allow images to be displayed or processed through special vision cameras and light sensors, and often act as a vehicle vision, both for driving and for surveillance. In fact, it is what is known as a local situational awareness system (LSAS), and allows operators of these vehicles to see and hear through these software and devices.

Specifically, the agreement provides prototyping, industrialization, and manufacturing capabilities, especially in the field of electronics, as well as collaboration on "disruptive technological developments," Indra explained this Friday. The agreement was signed in Barcelona, ​​​​with the participation of two heavyweights from both companies: Indra's CEO, José Vicente de los Mozos, and Ficosa Inversión's director, Javier Pujol. The latter is the Pujol family's investment company and also the parent company of the Ficosa group.

The Catalan company's alliance with Indra comes at a time of great fervor for the leading Spanish company, which has seen its profits increase by 88.6% through June. The current geopolitical context, with the wars in Palestine and Ukraine as major ongoing conflicts, has pushed Europe to rearm, instigated both by NATO demands and by the European Commission (EC), which has already proposed multiplying the community defense budget by up to five times. This agreement strengthens Indra's relationship with the Catalan manufacturing sector, which extends far beyond Ficosa, with 350 suppliers spread across Catalonia, 130 of them linked to defense.