The landing of the United States Marines in Spain with HIMARS missile launchers

@DefAviation ES 6·14·2023 · 20:27 0

Spain once again has M-142 HIMARS missile launchers from the United States Marine Corps (USMC) on its soil for the second time in a month.

The millionaire purchase of missile launchers by Morocco: Spain lacks these weapons
Ukraine put Russia in a bind with 16 HIMARS missile launchers: Poland will receive 500

The first official presentation of this missile launcher in Spain took place in mid-May at the Spanish International Defense and Security Fair (FEINDEF) held in Madrid, where a USMC launcher was exhibited. Now the Marines have brought a battery of these missile launchers for the Flotex-23 exercise organized by the Spanish Navy and which brings together 5,000 soldiers from various countries, in addition to 19 surface ships, 2 submarines and 16 aircraft. These maneuvers began on June 5 and will end this Friday the 16th, being the most important annual exercise of the Spanish Navy.

The landing of the American HIMARS took place on Friday, June 9, at the San Javier Air Base, in the Region of Murcia. The Marines who brought them belong to the Hotel Battery of the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Marine Regiment, attached to the 2nd Marine Division, based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

The new visit of the HIMARS to Spain is not by chance. The Army is developing the SILAM program (High Mobility Rocket Launcher System), in order to equip itself with a multiple missile launcher, a capacity that Spain lost its Teruel missile launchers in 2011. Two months ago, Morocco already announced its intention to buy 18 HIMARS missile launchers, and the US could be tempting Spain to join the club of operators of this model, although the Ministry of Defense seems more favorable to a national product, such as the pitcher presented by Escribano and Expal at FEINDEF.

You can see here some photos published by the Spanish Navy and by DVIDS of the arrival of the HIMARS of the Marines in San Javier.

USAF personnel guiding one of the HIMARS of the Marines at the time of its landing in San Javier.

Another image of the landing , which allows us to appreciate that the HIMARS fits perfectly into the cargo compartment of a C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft.

A view of the HIMARS from inside the Super Hercules. This missile launcher, in service since 2010, was designed to be transported on tactical transport aircraft such as a C-130 or an A400M Atlas.

Each HIMARS missile battery is made up of six launchers, but the photos released by DVIDS have only shown the landing of one of them, 675544.

Another image of the landing , in which we see the plane that carried this HIMARS launcher, the Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules 06-4631 "Thunderbird 14". According to Joebaugher.com, until last year this aircraft served with the 463rd Airlift Group, based at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas. Since March 2022, he has been assigned to the 37th Airlift Squadron, 86th Airlift Wing of the USAF, based in Ramstein, Germany.

One of the marines that arrived with the HIMARS. Before this deployment in Spain, the Hotel Battery was deployed in Setermoen, Norway, in the FIRES Summit exercise.

A Marine Corporal inspecting one of the launchers after its quick landing in San Javier.

HIMARS next to the Super Hercules that brought it to Spain, in a photo released by the Spanish Navy.

Two Spanish Marines belonging to the Tercio de Armada. They went to the San Javier Air Base to receive their American colleagues.

The HIMARS rolling on the San Javier platform. In the background we can see the USAF C-130J that brought it, and next to it a tanker truck from the Air Force, ready to supply it with fuel.

The two Spanish Marines together with the US Marines during the rapid deployment of HIMARS in San Javier. These rapid deployments are known as HIRAIN (HIMARS Rapid Insertion), and consist of disembarking the launcher as soon as possible and immediately putting it in a firing position.

HIMARS already in firing position. Inside the cab of the truck, it can be seen that black curtains have been deployed, surely so that the crew does not suffer the effects of the flash from the launch.

A family photo in San Javier next to the HIMARS. Five members of the USAF appear (the crew of the C-130J; two of them, on the right, wear camouflage uniforms), the two Spanish soldiers of the Tercio de Armada and 15 US Marines, three of them equipped with the helmets worn by the HIMARS crew.