From its naval base in Rota, the dock landing ship (BAA) 'Castilla' and the frigate 'Canarias' have sailed off for the strategic projection of a tactical subgroup of marines to Romania.
The Marine Brigade “Tercio de Armada” will deploy on Romanian territory a Mechanized Tactical Subgroup, composed of about 250 military men and women and about 40 vehicles. All of them, ready to be integrated into a multinational battalion led by France, and to carry out their mission within the NATO Multinational Battle Group deployed in Romania.
During the strategic projection to the area of operations, the 'Canarias' provides escort to the BAA 'Castilla'. The 'Castilla' provides its protection capacity against any kind of threat and incorporates, on this occasion, the aerial drone 'SCAN EAGLE', and belonging to the 11th Squadron of the Navy.
In addition, both the BAA 'Castilla' and the frigate 'Canarias' also have an on-board Operational Security Team (EOS), which contributes to the protection against asymmetric threats, as well as a ROLE 1 level health care unit..
Romania's Forward Land Forces Multinational Battle Group is one of eight counterparts deployed along the eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance to contribute to the deterrence and defense of this area. The activities to be carried out will be similar to those already carried out by the Spanish Armed Forces deployed in Latvia or Slovakia. Among them, to carry out exercises of the unit itself and others to be considered, as part of the Multinational Brigade led with France, as well as those to be developed in cooperation with the Romanian Armed Forces.
Eastern Flank Land Deployment Romania
During the 2016 Warsaw Summit, it was decided to reinforce “deterrence” as a fundamental tool to ensure the protection of allied territory on the Eastern flank. Subsequently, at the Madrid Summit in 2022, the Alliance recognized Collective Defense as the first priority among the missions envisaged in the new Atlantic Alliance (NATO) Strategic Concept.
At the Madrid summit, it was agreed to expand to eight Multinational Battle Groups (MN BG) deployed on the Eastern Flank, as well as their subsequent expansion to the level of Multinational Brigade (MN BDE).
Up to the present, the Spanish contribution of forces to these multinational units is materialized in the MN BG of Latvia and Slovakia, to which now joins the contribution of a tactical subgroup to the MN BG of Romania.