Catalonia joins the increase in defense spending: €80 million to manufacture bridge-laying vessels in Sant Cugat

BarcelonaHistorically, the defense sector has aroused suspicion in Catalonia. Despite the Principality's strong industrial activity, this type of investment has never had a significant impact on the region. Even so, with the European rearmament plan and the will of the Pedro Sánchez's government aims to reach 2% of GDP in defense spendingSome of these projects linked to the military industry are beginning to arrive in our country.

The Catalan company Gutmar and the GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas group inaugurated their first center of excellence for dual-use systems projects this Friday. It will be located at Gutmar's facilities in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Vallès Occidental). It's called dual-use because these are solutions that can serve both the military sector and provide support in emergency situations and natural disasters. The first initiative on which both companies will collaborate is the Anaconda bridge-laying vehicle, a type of vehicle that quickly transports, deploys, and removes mobile bridges, especially in situations where obstacles such as rivers or destroyed sections of road need to be crossed.

Both companies have explained that they plan to invest over €80 million in the project over the next 30 years, creating more than 1,500 direct and indirect jobs. In fact, the center occupies the same land that was vacated by the previous company. the American multinational automotive components manufacturer Delphi when it left Sant Cugat del Vallés. This closure gave way to a reindustrialization process and the arrival of Gutmar, a Catalan SME that has also worked on the design and manufacture of systems for Airbus helicopters or the submarines of the American company Triton

Santa Bárbara's sales director, Víctor López, has stated that this is a center with a "finalist focus"—meaning that the bridge-laying vessels will be completed and ready to ship—to address "security needs in Europe." "There's no need to explain the challenging context we face. Capacity can't be improvised; we're facing this now," the executive emphasized, and defended the project, stating that it is not a "short-term opportunistic" endeavor. He also stressed the shortage of these types of vehicles on the continent and their potential use in flood events like the recent storm in Valencia.

Support from the Generalitat and the State

The Spanish government and the Catalan government (Generalitat) have also demonstrated their support for this initiative to manufacture bridge-laying vessels in Catalonia, with representatives from both sides present at Friday's inauguration. The Secretary of State for Industry, Jordi García Brustenga, highlighted the growing need for defense and response capabilities in the face of nearby conflicts and natural disasters. In this regard, he noted that Catalonia only accounts for 9.7 percent of this sector, far below its weight in other industries. "There is an opportunity," insisted the high-ranking official in Pedro Sánchez's government. The Ministry of Industry is providing the pre-financing to the Ministry of Defense so that the purchase of these vehicles can proceed. For his part, the Secretary General of the Department of Business and Labor, Pol Gibert, stated that the opening of this center is "a source of national pride," as it brings "top-level technology to our region." Thus, he emphasized the importance of having a domestic industry in this field so that emergencies don't always occur in distant countries: "This is a geopolitically important moment, and Catalonia doesn't have a traditional defense industry, but it does have very powerful engineering and manufacturing capabilities, and what we need to do is transfer this. It's essential to have it in our country." Gutmar was founded in 1951, has a workforce of around 140 employees, and a turnover of approximately 20 million euros. Its president and second-generation member of one of the founding families, Joan Martorell, asserted that this investment will allow them to gain in "human capital, knowledge, and innovation," and issued a warning to Catalan metal companies, currently heavily dependent on the automotive industry, which is in crisis. "We must help these companies migrate toward strategic sectors with higher added value," the businessman said. This isn't Gutmar's first foray into the defense sector: they've previously designed suspension systems for NATO humanitarian mission vehicles and guidance systems for the alliance's missile defense systems. For now, the Sant Cugat center will focus on bridge-laying platforms, but both companies aim to eventually manufacture other types of devices related to defense and emergency response.