The Spanish Army achieves 3 of the first 6 places in the NATO Iron Spear 2023

This week, from May 1 to 5, the NATO Iron Spear 2023 Armored Vehicle Competition was held in Adazi, Latvia.

Latvia: tanks, IFVs and storm of fire and steel with Spanish Flags in Kadaga
The Spanish Leopardo 2E and other allied tanks in a good video of the Latvian Army

As we saw on Tuesday, this competition brings together different national teams from countries that have military contingents deployed in the Baltic republics within the framework of NATO's eFP mission. The competition consists of two categories: one for main battle tanks and another for infantry fighting vehicles (IFV).

For years, the Spanish Army has been obtaining good places in the final classifications of this competition. This year, although no Spanish team has been proclaimed winner in the aforementioned categories, the Spanish Army has achieved three of the first six places in the Iron Spear 2023 classification, specifically second place in the category tanks, and second and third place in the IFV category.

The results were announced this Friday by NATO's eFP Battle Group Latvia. In the tank category, the winner was a team from the British Army with a Challenger 2, while the third, behind Spain, was a team from the United States Army. In the IFV category, the winner was a team from the Canadian Army with an LAV 6.0. This competition demonstrates not only the good capabilities of the Spanish Leopardo 2E and ASCOD Pizarro, but also the great preparation of the crews of armored vehicles of the Spanish Army.

In this photo published by NATO's eFP Battle Group Latvia we can see the winners of the tank category. The British soldiers who won in this category belong to the armored regiment Queen's Royal Hussars (QRH), currently deployed in Estonia. The Spanish team belongs to the Brigade "Guadarrama" XII. I have not been able to locate which unit the US Army team belongs to.

Here we see the winners in the IFV category. The winning Canadian team belongs to Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment. The Spanish teams are from the Brigade "Guadarrama" XII.

Congratulations to all the winners, and also to the other teams, as they all contribute equally to the security of our allies in the Baltic republics.

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Photo sources: Canadian Armed Forces Photo / eFP Battle Group Latvia.