The Spanish Armed Forces begin their deployment in Operation ‘Centinela Gallego 2025’ against wildfires

• This operation will be active between the 15th August and 30th September, and will consist in the deployment of land patrol teams for wildfire prevention and deterrence

Operation ‘Centinela Gallego 2025’ has begun today and will remain active until the 30th September. 35 patrols made up by elements of the Army and the Navy will carry out surveillance tasks of the Galician mountains, in coordination with the competent authorities of the Autonomous Community of Galicia, in order to collaborate in the prevention of wildfires through presence and deterrence activities.

In this context, military personnel from the 7th Galicia Brigade (BRILAT VII in Spanish) will be organised in 30 patrols, which will be in charge of the surveillance of the regions of Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra. The other remaining five patrols from the operation are made up by the Marine Corps of the Northern Regiment (Tercio Norte or TERNOR in Spanish), based in Ferrol, and will be deployed in the southern area of the region of A Coruña.

With regard to the territorial scope of this operational deployment, the surveillance and deterrence tasks of land patrols in a total of 39 municipalities, which are divided into 8 forest districts (as convened in the agreement signed between the Spanish Ministry of Defence and the regional government of Xunta de Galicia) must be highlighted. However, in the interests of reaching the highest efficiency levels, the Xunta de Galicia may request the modification of the patrols’ effort in each area in order to adapt to the risk assessment.

Presentation of the 2025 campaing in Galicia

On 30th July, the presentation of the operation in the helitransported Forest Patrol Base of the Xunta of Galicia was held. The event presided over by the Rural Development Advisor of the Xunta de Galicia, María José Gómez Rodríguez, and attended by the subdelegate of the government in Pontevedra, Abel Losada, and the Commander of the ‘Galicia VII’ Brigade, General Alfonso Pardo de Santayana Galbis, among other civil and military authorities.

During the event, the most relevant aspects of this operational deployment were presented, as well as the the positive outcomes of ‘Operation Centinela Gallego 2024’ for wildfire prevention. Regarding the most significant data available from 2024, the use of a total of 62 vehicles of different models, a total of 208,000 kilometres of service and around 3,300 patrols carried out both in municipalities and from different observation points, is to be highlighted. In addition, a total of 3,650 minutes of daytime/night-time surveillance and observation were conducted using remotely piloted aircraft systems, with the operation ending with a total of 37 sightings reported to the Xunta de Galicia, a considerable decrease compared to previous years.

Operations ‘Centinela’, in support of the security of Spanish citizens

For the second consecutive year, Operation ‘Centinela Canario’ has been launched on the island of Tenerife, within the framework of the agreement signed between the Cabildo Insular de Tenerife (Tenerife Island Council, the regional government) and the Ministry of Defence. On this occasion, it has been agreed to deploy 10 land patrols in the most vulnerable areas of the island, which are also surrounding protected natural areas.

In both operations, military units act under the operational control of the Operations Command (MOPS in Spanish) and under the tactical command of the Land Operational Command, based in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Furthermore, in Operation ‘Centinela Gallego’, General Pardo de Santayana will serve as commander of all military forces participating in the operation.

Once again, the Spanish Armed Forces’ support for the civil authorities demonstrates their commitment to serving the nation of Spain, as well as their crisis management capabilities.