Military engineering vehicles used to fight forest fires in Spain

Several provinces in Spain are suffering a terrible wave of fires that has already left more than 100,000 people affected.

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Today we're going to see here some of the engineering vehicles used by the Armed Forces to fight fires, which are being deployed right now to active fires in several provinces, to complement the tasks carried out by trucks directly dedicated to firefighting.

The Military Emergency Unit (UME) has been deployed in several affected areas since the very beginning. One of the newest ground vehicles used by this unit is the SVMAC P75D unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), known within the UME as Asturcón, which can be seen above.

The UME has currently acquired ten vehicles of this type, five of them assigned to the Emergency Intervention Battalions (BIEM) and another five to the UME Drone Unit (UDRUME), created in December 2023. The P75D is a vehicle manufactured in Spain, specifically in Gijón (Asturias). Equipped with two tracks, it weighs 3.5 tons and measures 2.55 meters long, 1.21 meters wide, and 1.76 meters high. This ground system was first deployed during the 2025 summer fire season.

The P75D is equipped with a brush cutter on the front and a dozer blade on the rear, making it a very suitable vehicle for creating firebreaks without endangering the lives of UME (Military Emergency Unit) members. Furthermore, it can perform 3D terrain mapping, take hyperspectral images, and collect soil samples. The images shown here of this vehicle were taken by the UME during the Sierra Oeste fire in Madrid.

The UME has also deployed Caterpillar D7R Series II bulldozers to this fire. Above, we see one of them, belonging to the First Emergency Intervention Battalion (BIEM I), based in Torrejón de Ardoz, making its way through the undergrowth in the middle of the night during the fire in the Sierra Oeste of Madrid.

The Spanish Army has also deployed Caterpillar D7R Series II bulldozers. Here we see two of them loaded onto Trabosa GL-0936 trailers pulled by Iveco Trakker 450 E5 tractor units belonging to the 11th Engineer Specialties Regiment (REI 11), based in Salamanca, which has been deployed in Guadalajara and later in Navas del Rey (Madrid).

The Caterpillar D7R Series II is equipped with a front-mounted dozer blade and a rear-mounted ripper, used to break up, loosen, and fracture very hard soils. It has a gross power of 260 hp, weighs 25,548 kg, and measures 7.2 meters long, 2.8 meters wide, and 3.3 meters high. It can be operated by a single person. It is ideal for creating firebreaks.

The REI 11 has also deployed Caterpillar D5K2 light bulldozers in the affected area. The Spanish Army has 18 units of this model. Like the D7R, the D5K2 is equipped with a dozer blade at the front and a ripper at the rear. It has a gross power of 96 hp, a weight of 9,110 kg, and dimensions of 4.3 meters long, 2.1 meters wide, and 2.7 meters high. In the photo, we see one of them creating a firebreak with its dozer blade.

🌙 ¡Buenas noches! Desde el #EjércitodeTierra trasladamos todo nuestro apoyo y cercanía a la población afectada por los incendios forestales, así como nuestro reconocimiento a quienes trabajan para hacer frente a esta emergencia.

De manera especial, a los militares de la Unidad… pic.twitter.com/JPz5XN0s35

— Ejército de Tierra 🇪🇸 (@EjercitoTierra) July 25, 2026

The Spanish Army published this video on July 25, showing the resources it is contributing to the firefighting efforts in several Spanish provinces. At the beginning of the video, we see a Caterpillar D5K2 light bulldozer being loaded onto an Iveco Trakker 450 E5 truck from Logistics Group X of the "Guzmán el Bueno" X Brigade, based in Cerro Muriano (Córdoba). Further on we see two Iveco Trakker 450 E5 tractor units from Transport Group No. 1 (AGTP 1), based in Madrid, pulling Trabosa GL-0936 trailers with Caterpillar D7R-II bulldozers.

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Photos: Unidad Militar de Emergencias / Ejército de Tierra.