The Diplomat
The acting Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, traveled yesterday to Estonia to visit the Spanish Armed Forces detachments Ámbar and UDAA NASAMS, which are part of the NATO devices to contribute to the deterrence on the Eastern flank of the Alliance.
The air defense battery (UDAA NASAMS) is integrated into the Alliance’s Eastern Flank Air Defense System structure, while the Ámbar Tactical Air Detachment, with eight Eurofighter combat aircraft and approximately 130 military personnel belonging to the 11th Air and Space Wing, is part of the Baltic Air Policing mission. Both will remain in Estonia until December.
“I want to thank the entire Spanish contingent for their commitment, dedication and professionalism, working perfectly integrated here in Estonia in deterrence tasks, said Robles during the visit. “We cannot forget that we are close to the Russian border and that the situation in Ukraine is still harsh, very cruel,” she added.
Upon her arrival at the Amari Air Base, Robles was received by the Estonian Minister of Defense, Hanno Pevkur, and by the Spanish ambassador to the Baltic country, Guillermo Corral Van Damme. Subsequently, she held a meeting with her Estonian counterpart in which both addressed the worrying situation in Ukraine. This is the second bilateral meeting in just ten days, following Pevkur’s visit to Spain for the informal ministerial meeting of European Union defense ministers, held in Toledo on August 29-30.
“The Estonian minister thanked me very specially for the participation of the Spanish military, both the very high professionalism of the contingent that carries the NASAMS battery and the Eurofighter pilots,” Robles explained. “We are going to continue this collaboration and this joint work and we have proposed to continue with the assistance to Ukraine”, she added.
During the visit, the head of Ámbar, Air and Space Army lieutenant colonel Luis Borque, and of UDAA NASAMS, Army lieutenant colonel Sergio García, explained the tasks of both contingents. Likewise, Robles visited the premises of the GBAD-Task Force-Estonia, responsible for the NASAMS Battery, a medium range anti-aircraft system with great effectiveness against fixed wing, rotary wing and missile aircraft, which has been in service in the Army since May 2003. The acting Minister of Defense also visited the Quick Reaction Alert facilities, which are part of the Ámbar detachment.
“You don’t know the peace of mind that your presence generates”, said the acting minister to the members of the detachment. “All NATO countries want Spanish military personnel,” said Robles. The acting minister also met with Lieutenant Elena Gutiérrez, the first female pilot of a Eurofighter fighter in Spain, and with Commander Alfredo Jiménez Díaz-Canseco, the first Spanish pilot to reach 2,000 flight hours in a Eurofighter, whom she personally congratulated. Afterwards, Robles signed the Books of Honor of the two detachments and dedicated a few words to the soldiers and their families, whose work “contributes to the fact that Spain has become a point of reference in the NATO framework”.
