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🇪🇸 Spain /Conflict & Security

Spain’s defense giants reconcile, but their rivalry remains

From La Vanguardia · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • The chief executives of Indra, Escribano, Santa Bárbara and Sapa publicly presented a united front at Tess Defence after a period of internal friction.
  • Tess Defence is accelerating production of its 8x8 Dragon armored vehicles, with the 100th delivery to Spain’s Army expected in September and 122 by year-end.
  • Indra took a 51.01% stake in 2025, while the partners retained their separate responsibilities within the consortium.

The four executives leading Spain’s biggest defense groups chose a factory floor in Alcalá de Guadaíra, Seville, to display a reconciliation that would have seemed unthinkable less than a year ago. Josep Maria Recasens of Indra, Fernando Fernández of Escribano, Alejandro Page of Santa Bárbara and Ibón Aperribay of Sapa posed together beside the 8x8 assembly line, signaling a new phase for Tess Defence.

The consortium has faced years of turbulence since its creation in the summer of 2020, when the four companies agreed to divide its capital almost equally. That arrangement made operations difficult because, in practice, no company held clear control. The companies now acknowledge privately that the working atmosphere has changed and that there is a clear before and after.

The great challenges are not faced by one person: they are faced by a team. Each one contributes, pushes and does their part to achieve it together.

· Josep Maria RecasensIndra’s chief executive described the new cooperative phase after the Tess Defence meeting in Seville.

Tess Defence has also picked up production speed. The 8x8 Dragon armored vehicles are leaving the Seville facilities at a faster rate. The company expects to complete its 100th delivery to the Army in September and reach 122 vehicles by the end of the year. It closed 2025 with sales of 197 million euros, while revenue for this year is expected to reach 275 million euros.

Indra moved decisively in 2025, acquiring 51.01% of the consortium without changing the division of labor. Indra handles the command-and-control systems, Santa Bárbara provides the platform and chassis, and Escribano supplies the weapon stations. Recasens summed up the public message after the Seville meeting: “The great challenges are not faced by one person: they are faced by a team. Each one contributes, pushes and does their part to achieve it together.” He added, “We remain at the front line, working as a single team and showing that, when there is a common goal, no calendar can stop us. Let’s go for it!”

We remain at the front line, working as a single team and showing that, when there is a common goal, no calendar can stop us. Let’s go for it!

· Josep Maria RecasensRecasens reinforced the public message of unity among the four consortium partners.
About this summary

Originally published by La Vanguardia in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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