Tanks in the Spanish Army

Tanks in the Spanish Army have over 90 years of history, from the French Renault FTs first delivered in 1919 to the Leopard 2 and B1 Centauro models of the early 21st century.

Between July 1936 and April 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, the two opposing armies received large quantities of tanks from foreign powers.

Before the First World War, the Spanish Army bought a unarmored Schneider-Brillié truck in 1909 to be used in Melilla, where armed conflict with local tribes was going on.

This time, the French government consented and agreed to the sale of ten machine gun armed FTs and a single command tank.

[24] Upon landing, the vehicles were used to support the left flank of the Spanish attack and aided in the capture of the heights surrounding the beaches and controlling the exit points towards the inland.

[35] While touring Europe for a second time, in an attempt to integrate foreign design trends into the new Trubia, Captain Ruiz de Toledo found a new type of track system in Germany.

Landesa, who had at this time been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, began a preseries of three vehicles, motored by the L-2000 55 horsepower (41 kW) engine, designed by Daimler-Benz.

Ultimately, two were produced and set for testing with the Spanish Republican Army, and another nine were ordered with the idea of using them to tow Škoda 76.5-millimeter (3.01 in) anti-aircraft cannons.

[65] The first combat operation in Spain for the T-26 was near the town of Seseña, when a Republican tank company counterattacked against the spearhead of the Nationalist's drive towards Madrid.

Nevertheless, the Soviet lieutenant colonel opened a training school in the town of Archena, near Cartagena, recruiting mainly truck and bus drivers from cities such as Madrid and Barcelona.

[78] Later that month, Krivoshein and his deputy (Major Greisser) were recalled to the Soviet Union and replaced by General Dmitry Pavlov.

However, the brigade was used to support Republican infantry forces and not as a mobile armored group, and as a result its strategic role during the war was limited by its misuse.

[98] On 10 December 1936, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini decided to send combat troops to Spain, in a bid to end the war as early as possible.

[100] Failing to take into account the meteorological conditions of the battlefield, by the following day the Italian troops found themselves attacking over ground that had turned into mud due to the heavy rains.

[111] This disadvantage in firepower led the Nationalist Army to experiment with the adoption of the Italian 20-millimeter (0.79 in) Breda anti-aircraft gun for its fleet of Panzer Is.

[112] The installation of the gun required the top of the tank's turret to be cut off and extended upwards, increasing the vehicle's profile and decreasing the visibility of the crew.

Furthermore, the new gun's sights were located within an open crease to the front of the new turret extension, forcing the gunner to aim and fire from a relatively unsafe position.

The capture of Republican T-26s and their return to service with the Nationalist Army made the modification of the Panzer I unnecessary, while later attempts to up-gun the German light tank failed because of the lack of available 20-millimeter (0.79 in) Breda guns.

[116] Due to the number of T-26s captured and put back into service against their previous masters, the Soviet Union also inadvertently became the largest provider of armored fighting vehicles of the Nationalist Army.

[130] The tracks had previously been tested on the original prototype; they were designed to fit around the roadwheel, and consequently lock themselves into place, avoiding the possibility of slipping off.

[131] The construction of the prototype was postponed until May 1940, due to a shortage of funds, and the tank was finally delivered to the proving grounds of Carabanchel for testing.

The fate of the self-propelled piece was much the same as that of the Verdeja 2, and the vehicle was left untouched at the proving grounds in Carabanchel until 1973, when it was moved to the Spanish base Alfonso XIII, housing the then Mechanized Infantry Regiment Wad Rass nº 55.

[154] Spain's armored force composition remained the same until February 1954, when the United States delivered the first twelve M47 Patton tanks to the Spanish Army.

This included the General Staff, based at El Pardo, and the Nucleo de Tropas Divisionario (Divisionary Troop Nucleus).

From 1983 a further 54 tanks were upgraded to the M48A5E2 standard with a Hughes Mk 7 fire control system similar to that of the M60A3 featuring a passive night vision sight for the gunner, laser rangefinder, and analog electronic ballistic computer.

A further upgrade of these to the M48A5E3 standard from 1991 featuring a gun stabilization system and thermal gunners sight was cancelled with the availability of surplus American M60A3 TTS tanks retired under CFE.

Krauss-Maffei also cited the loss of millions of dollars due to failures on part of Santa Bárbara Sistemas, who would manufacture the Lince.

[182] Ultimately, the purchase of a number of M60 Patton tanks, the modernisation of the AMX-30E and the continued fiscal problems finally caused the Spanish Ministry of Defense to cancel the Lince programme in 1989.

[184] The modernisation entailed the introduction of a new armour piercing discarding sabot round, the modification of the turret hatch to allow the installation of a larger anti-aircraft machine gun, and a brand new fire control system.

These were to be assembled in Spain by Santa Bárbara Sistemas, with 60–70 percent of the components manufactured by Spanish companies, and production taking place between 1998 and 2003.

An M48 Patton tank of the Spanish Army on display at the El Goloso Museum of Armored Vehicles in October 2007.
An AMX-30E tank on display at El Goloso
Renault FT of the Spanish Army , at the El Goloso Museum of Armored Vehicles
Lone surviving piece of a Schneider CA1 tank used by the Spanish Army
Some of the tanks used during the Spanish Civil War at the Museum of Armored Media located at the El Goloso military base (Madrid). In the background two T-26s , each with a color scheme (Republican/Nationalist) and on the right a Panzer I . On the far left a Verdeja .
Soviet T-26 supplied to the Popular Army during the Spanish Civil War (see also Combat history of the T-26 )
A CV-33 of the Spanish Army, at El Goloso
The Panzer I heavily influenced the Verdeja's turret design
The Verdeja 75 mm Self-Propelled Howitzer, with the gun system visible
Panzer IV Ausf. H, El Goloso Museum of Armored Vehicles, Madrid, Spain
An M41 Walker Bulldog of the Spanish Army, on display at El Goloso .
A Spanish M47 Patton . Despite being completely obsolete, serving practically nothing more than for instruction, the M-47s were for decades the most numerous tanks in the Spanish arsenal.
One M48 Patton medium tank participate in the joint US Spanish military Exercise CRISEX '83.
An AMX-30E in the Museographic Collection of the Spanish Legion in Almería
An AMX-30EM2 on display at the Museum of Armoured Vehicles of El Goloso
A Spanish M60A3
From left to right: an AMX-30E , a M60 Patton and a Leopard 2A4 in the Museum of Armored Units of El Goloso.
A Spanish Leopard 2A4 in 2010. Spain initially leased 108 Leopard 2A4s in 1995 from Germany. The lease was extended from 2001 to 2005. Later, it bought them for 15 million euros.
A Spanish Leopard 2E ( Main battle tank ) in 2018.