The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, visited today the Support Office for the Logistics Base of the Spanish Army, located in the headquarters of the same in the Palacio de Buenavista in Madrid, which is the ‘machine room’ that will dynamize and promote the innovative logistics project whose financing agreements were signed yesterday, an important administrative milestone.

The office, which is “laying the most solid foundations for this pioneering and sustainable project,” is currently made up of 25 civilians and military personnel, under the command of Brigadier General Enrique Ruiz Alonso.

“Progress is being made at a very important step and with great enthusiasm,” Robles said of the project scheduled to open in 2027, which will create more than 1,600 jobs in the region.

The minister, accompanied by the Secretary of State for Defense, Amparo Valcarce, and the Chief of Staff of the Land Army, Army General Amador Teachat, has met the workers and main leaders in both the area of coordination, logistics and technology, who work closely with agencies of both the Ministry of Defense and the Land Army.

They explained to him the part of logistical engineering and the capacities and sensitive materials of storage for the future base ‘General de Ejército Javier Varela’ whose inauguration is scheduled for the year 2027, and which will mean that Córdoba “becomes an industrial reference point”.

The level of innovation and technology is one of the great challenges of the project and in the words of one of the architects of the team “it is a dream for any engineer”.

In the technological part, they have explained some of the test projects that are underway to find the most suitable solution for the logistics base and how they are analyzing the 4.0 technologies that exist in the sector.

The project, which will increase the logistical efficiency of the Spanish Army and boost the generation of direct and indirect employment and the development of a technological and R+D+I engine for the entire region and the city of Córdoba, is a priority for the Ministry of Defense, which provides 226 million euros of the 351 million investment.

Robles has taken the opportunity to call for education and vocational training, so that they start working “with the younger generations, because it will be a very important source of jobs, innovation and technology”.

“I am sure that both the Junta de Andalucía, the City of Córdoba, and the Ministry of Defense will all work together in favor of Córdoba and this project,” said the minister on a basis that also “will function as an energy island where renewables and new technologies will also be important.”

LOGISTIC CONTROL
The Ground Army Logistics Base Project Support Office was created in March 2021 and is located within the headquarters of the Army Logistics Support Command (MALE), which has been reinforced with 14 engineers with proven experience and high logistical and technological knowledge.

The staff is temporarily reinforced according to the needs, with personnel from all the MALE (engineering, economic affairs, information systems) and different bodies of the Spanish Army, and its main tasks are to carry out the coordination and control of the project, in the aspects related to: Infrastructures, technological component, including ICT, personnel, transition from the current structure to the future, transfer and integration of the capacities of the current OLCs to the future BLET.

Among the milestones reached in 2002 is the completion of the design of the logistics and non-logistics buildings of the future base, and two workshops have been held to raise awareness of the human resources and technological components.

For the challenges of this year 2023, it is worth highlighting the promotion of the tendering processes of the projects of enclosures, urbanization and construction of the buildings of the base once the land destined to locate it in the industrial park ‘La Rinconada’ becomes the property of the Ministry. Likewise, the publication of posts for civil personnel in the next Public Employment Offers will be promoted.