{"id":64736,"date":"2026-04-28T23:54:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=64736"},"modified":"2026-05-05T18:13:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T16:13:57","slug":"the-communication-problems-that-still-exist-in-the-spanish-armed-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/04\/28\/the-communication-problems-that-still-exist-in-the-spanish-armed-forces\/","title":{"rendered":"The communication problems that still exist in the Spanish Armed Forces"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I've been thinking about publishing this article for some time, but a very recent event has finally encouraged me to get started.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/08\/14\/the-importance-of-a-good-comcam-and-the-excellent-photos-of-a-ukrainian-brigade\/\">The importance of a good COMCAM and the excellent photos of a Ukrainian brigade<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/01\/31\/the-spectacular-short-film-of-the-comcam-of-finland-showing-its-armed-forces\/\">The spectacular short film of the COMCAM of Finland showing its Armed Forces<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><strong>Last week, the Spanish Air Force's 23rd Wing organized a major event at Talavera la Real Air Base<\/strong> to celebrate the 300,000th flight hour of its F-5 fighter jets. I learned about this thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JorgeGuardia_\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jorge Guardia<\/a> and the excellent photos and videos he posted.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\" style=\"margin:20px 0 20px 0;\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">De vuelta a casa tras 2 d\u00edas disfrutando con el Ala 23 con motivo de las 300.000 horas de vuelo del F-5.<\/p>\n<p>Y aparte del mismo, nos hemos deleitado con los Predator locales y alg\u00fan otro p\u00e1jaro que se ha dejado ver por all\u00ed.<br \/>Gracias <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EjercitoAire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@EjercitoAire<\/a> y <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AIREorg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AIREorg<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uy7I7GZoVg\">pic.twitter.com\/uy7I7GZoVg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jorge Guardia (@JorgeGuardia_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JorgeGuardia_\/status\/2047723027756994646?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 24, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>A Swiss YouTube channel I follow, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@luhengfoto\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luhengfoto<\/a>, <strong>published this magnificent video recorded on April 23rd during that celebration:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rare Night Flight: Spanish Air Force F-5 300,000 Hours Tribute\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zu7fKEbFf4g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As you know, <strong>one of the purposes of Defense and Aviation is to publicize the work of the Spanish Armed Forces<\/strong>. This is a Spanish blog run by a civilian. Obviously, I don't have enough resources to travel all over Spain, and <strong>every day I check what the Armed Forces publish on their social media<\/strong> (especially Twitter) so I have material to write my articles. Five days later, the Air Force has not published anything about that event on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EjercitoAire\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">its Twitter account<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EjercitoAire\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">its Facebook page<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ejercitodelaire\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">its Instagram account<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/ejercitodelaireydelespacio.defensa.gob.es\/EA\/ejercitodelaire\/es\/#gsc.tab=0\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">its website<\/a>. Even sadder is discovering that <a href=\"https:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/ejercitoaire\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">their Flickr account<\/a> (which is a Pro account, meaning it's paid) <strong>hasn't posted anything since July 30, 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53854917340_26359ca742_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53854917340_3f9f72d1b9_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Obviously, this isn't always the case. <strong>The communication policy of the Armed Forces has improved considerably in Spain in recent years.<\/strong> But there are still problems that are incomprehensible in 2026: events about which <strong>very few photos are published, and sometimes of very low quality<\/strong> (at a time when smartphones have been taking photos of optimal quality for years) and <strong>videos that are published in 720p<\/strong> format (when it's common to find videos on YouTube, even from very basic channels, in 1080p or even 4K).<\/p>\n<p><strong>The communications policy of the Armed Forces in Spain is highly centralized.<\/strong> This is a choice (it also occurs in other countries), but it means that communications departments must be well-resourced and staffed, otherwise bottlenecks develop. For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/latvijas_armija\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Latvian Army (a small armed force) has a superb Flickr account<\/a> that publishes many photos of different events. While here it's common to see 3 or 4 photos published of an event, there it's typical to see albums of 20 or 30 photos. In fact, <strong>I've been able to publish many articles about Spanish military personnel in Latvia thanks to the Latvian Army<\/strong> and its excellent photo albums.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5483\/14390059352_b181f60dc3_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5483\/14390059352_8f4f03d452_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are other countries where communication policy is more decentralized. For example, <strong>the Polish Army allows its various units to publish their own Facebook pages<\/strong>. This allows you to obtain high-quality information and visual material from a wide variety of sources. <strong>The best example of this is the United States:<\/strong> its multimedia portal, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.dvidshub.net<\/a>, constantly publishes photos and videos supplied by different units within its branches of service. It is abundant and of very high quality.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In Spain, there have been outstanding attempts to publish good content.<\/strong> I remember, for example, the social media channels created by the <strong>Tercio de Armada<\/strong> a few years ago, with photos and videos of superb quality. They were all shut down, in accordance with the idea of \u200b\u200bcentralizing communication. A shame. Something similar happens in the <strong>Air Force<\/strong>: there are unofficial channels managed directly by units. They publish very good information but are more or less in limbo. <strong>The Army has loosened up a bit in this regard<\/strong>, with accounts as well managed as that of the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FUTER_ET\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Land Force (FUTER)<\/a> on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/8384\/8632151540_b469970985_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/8384\/8632151540_c5b1df20f7_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are also some noteworthy examples. <strong>The Spanish Joint Chiefs of Staff (EMAD)<\/strong> has a very good communication policy on its website and social media. The <strong>Military Emergency Unit (UME)<\/strong> has an excellent social media communication policy, publishing extensive, high-quality photo albums whenever it has an operation underway. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GR_GuardiaReal\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Royal Guard<\/a> has just launched social media accounts with a simply admirable level of professionalism.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Of course, I don't blame the problems on the communications professionals in our Armed Forces.<\/strong> I know they do a great job with the resources they have. I've spoken with some of them and I must always thank them for their cordiality and good work. <strong>The problems, I'm afraid, come from higher up.<\/strong> So I hope these words also reach those higher up, so they remember that <strong>Spain has magnificent Armed Forces that deserve to be better known<\/strong>, by offering more resources and more personnel to their communications departments and, where possible, allowing different units to have their own channels.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Main photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/latvijas_armija\/53514774371\/in\/album-72177720314651149\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u0112riks Kukutis \/ Latvijas Armija<\/a>. Rest of the photos: Elentir.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been thinking about publishing this article for some time, but a very recent event has finally encouraged me to get started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}