Spanish industry team seals 8x8 combat vehicle deal

An industry team led by General Dynamics European Land Systems- Santa Bárbara Sistemas (GDELS-SBS) is to manufacture an initial 348 Dragon 8x8 VCR wheeled combat vehicles for the Spanish Army, under a €1.74 billion ($2.06 billion) deal announced by the Spanish MoD on 25 August.

Workshare for GDELS-SBS accounts for €733 million of the overall contract value.

The contract also includes product maintenance and lifecycle support, as well as potential export activities.

Dragon is based on the GDELS 8x8 Piranha V vehicle, but it will include ‘Spanish national technologies as required by the Spanish MoD’, the company noted. According to Shephard Defence Insight, the type of turret to be integrated on the vehicle has yet to be determined.

GDELS-SBS will be supported by Spanish companies Indra Sistemas, Sapa Placencia, and Escribano Mechanical & Engineering. This aligns with Spanish government policy that national companies must have at least 70% workshare in the programme.

The first 348 vehicles will be delivered over seven years, although the Spanish requirement could grow to 1,000 vehicles in two further production batches.

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VCR (Batch 1) [Spain]