Spanish CHOD holds his first briefing on overseas operations

• Admiral general Teodoro López Calderón visits the Operations Command, the Joint Cyberspace Command and the Joint Special Operations Command

Chief of Defence Staff (JEMAD in spanish), admiral general Teodoro López Calderón, has held a work session with the units located at Retamares Base (Madrid). Accompanied by the Commander of the Operations Command, lieutenant general Francisco Braco, he presided over the daily point of situation at the Operations Command (MOPS in spanish), in which all activities carried out in the last 24 hours relating to the Baluarte Mission, Operations Abroad and Permanent Operations are updated.

Subsequently, the Chief of Defence has had the opportunity to learn from the Joint Cyberspace Command (MCCE) about its mission; command, organization, tasks and capabilities. After the briefing, the delegation moved to the laboratory and the operations room where the V2CN-21 exercise is being conducted at the Command and Control Headquarters. The V2CN exercise is a national FMN (Federated Mission Network) verification, validation and confirmation exercise, which serves the dual purpose of training and updating the Armed Forces in the implementation of these FMNs and testing their readiness for possible contributions to the NATO force structure.

Afterwards, admiral general Calderón was briefed on the drone and the Deployable Cyber Defence Kit (CDK). This equipment is one of those deployed at the Central Defence Hospital "Gómez Ulla", as part of the contribution of the MCCE as the Cyberspace Component Command in the Baluarte Mission operation, with the aim of improving cyber defence in the hospital's network.

The next stage was a VTC between the Operations Command and the foreign missions, in which 2,464 military personnel are currently deployed. Each head of contingent, detachment and Navy vessel involved updated the overall situation in the area of operations. As a shared topic, it was mentioned that each mission has its own contingency plan with preventive, control and isolation measures against the COVID-19 pandemic, which is not reducing the efficiency and operability on assigned missions.

"This is my first chance to salute you, and it is indeed a privilege for me to be able to work closely with the operational structure. Because operations, its personnel, you are the reason for the existence of our armed forces. I will do everything on my hand to ensure that your efforts are being reflected in your security, and this is achieved by providing you with the appropriate resources to carry out your mission," CHOD remarked.

Finally, CHOD visited the Joint Special Operations Command's operations centre to get an overview on the current missions of this specific Command.