The Spanish Army wins an international main battle tanks competition in Latvia

@DefAviation ES 11·17·2023 · 20:22 0

This week a new edition of the semi-annual Iron Spear competition, organized by NATO, was held in the military base of Adazi, Latvia.

The Spanish Army achieves 3 of the first 6 places in the NATO Iron Spear 2023
Latvia: tanks, IFVs and storm of fire and steel with Spanish Flags in Kadaga

The Spanish Army has been achieving very good results in these competitions for a long time, which demonstrates the high level of preparation of its tank and infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) crews. In the May edition, Spain achieved 3 of the 6 first places, with crews from the "Guadarrama" XII Brigade, although the British Army won the victory in the tank category and the Canadian Army was the winner in the IFV category.

On June 27, the Spanish eFP XIII contingent arrived in Latvia, also generated by troops from the Brigade "Guadarrama" XII, based in El Goloso, Madrid. Here we can see one of their Leopard 2E tanks during this week's Iron Spear competition.

In addition to Spain, military teams from Germany, Canada, the United States, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have also participated in this competition. Above these lines we can see one of the PT-91 Twardy tanks of the Polish Army that participated in this competition.

Above these lines we can see two VCI Marder of the German Army and two VCI CV90 35NL of the Royal Netherlands Army, displaying the respective flags of their countries. The small red flags are used in NATO exercises to indicate that the vehicle is ready to open fire. When this is not the case, a small green flag is placed.

An M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams of the 2nd Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division of the US Army during this competition.

Some of the infantry fighting vehicles that participated in the competition. From left to right we see a Dutch CV90 35NL, two German Marders and two Spanish ASCOD Pizarros. Behind you can see the flags of vehicles from the United States and the United Kingdom.

Another image of infantry fighting vehicles. In the foreground we see a US Army M-2A3 Bradley. Behind him are two Spanish ASCOD Pizarros, two German Marders and two Dutch CV90 35NL.

One of the Spanish Leopard 2E battle tanks that participated in the competition.

In this edition of the Iron Spear, Spain achieved the first two places in the main battle tank category. Here we see the crew of the Leopard 2E that achieved first place. Third place in this category went to Germany.

In addition, Spain also achieved third place in the IFV category, with first place for the US and second for the Netherlands. In this image we can see the Spanish winners. !! Congratulations!!

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Photos: Ejército de Tierra / OTAN / eFP Battle Group Latvia / U.S. Army.