El Pais | Ministry of Defense Contracts UROVESA to Develop VAMTAC Successor

---

Ministry of Defense Contracts UROVESA to Develop VAMTAC Successor
Over twenty years has passed since the URO VAMTAC multipurpose armored vehicle entered service with the Spanish Army and eventually nearly all the branches of the Spanish Armed Forces, the Spanish National Police, and the Guardia Civil. The vehicle, originally designed to exceed the Humvee in capability, evolved into the symbol of the success of the Spanish arms industry.

After over two years of neglect by the Spanish Government, the Spanish arms industry is ramping up once more as the Spanish Ministry of Defense has contracted arms company UROVESA, responsible for the widely successful and popular URO VAMTAC multipurpose armored vehicle, to develop the successor vehicle to the aforementioned VAMTAC. In 1995, the first VAMTAC was tested by the Ministry of Defense and by 2005 over 1,200 had been produced and sent to the Spanish Army for operations. The vehicle has been purchased by over six different militaries, and is a symbol of the success of the Spanish arms industry and what it is capable of in the 21st Century. As of 2020, over 4,200 has been produced in total with the Spanish Army employing no less than 1,650 URO VAMTACs of varying variants and capabilities. The vehicle has also been employed by the Spanish Marines, the Spanish National Police, and the Guardia Civil, thanks to its multipurpose capabilities as an all-round military-grade vehicle.

Now, over two decades after the VAMTAC entered service with the Spanish Armed Forces, the Ministry of Defense made a shocking announcement yesterday afternoon when it was announced that UROVESA - the company behind the URO VAMTAC - was contracted to develop a VAMTAC successor vehicle. The announcement came as a surprise to many both at home and abroad, because the Defense Ministry had not made any significant contracts with the local arms industry in Spain since the Navantia deal for the Jose Bravo aircraft carrier. The Defense Ministry clarified that the contract was not to bring into operation a VAMTAC successor, but to design and develop test prototypes to test the feasibility of whether or not the VAMTAC can be replaced, considering how much of it is serving in essentially all branches of the Spanish Armed Forces, the police, and in more than five foreign militaries.

Spain's Defense Minister, Andrea Soler, a former Defense Ministry senior liaison to Navantia, stated at a press conference at UROVESA headquarters:

”. . . The Toledo government has made it clear that the Spanish arms industry cannot and will not be neglected any further. The growth of the economy depends on the arms industry of Spain due to its rapid rise to success in the 2000s and its rapid drop in value in the past two years. A policy of encouraging local industry growth will be implemented by the Prime Minister with the approval of the Cortes Generales and purchases from foreign nations will be limited in the future.”

The VAMTAC successor, although still deep in preliminary design and development, has already been named 'Centuria (century)' and will be equipped with additional armor, a Modular Attachable Weapons Interface (MAWI), and other additional components to further and better adapt the revolutionary VAMTAC design for the mid-21st Century and for whatever may come toward the Spanish Kingdom, may it be a foreign invasion or otherwise.

Credit to Nonador