after all the raison d’être of the
Armed Forces. As Defence Minister
Margarita Robles so rightly put it, “the
military is a shield that allows societies
to develop in peace and freedom”.
—How is Mission Baluarte being
carried out?
—The main focus of this operation
is the management of all the military
means made available to the civilian
24 hours a day, seven days a week,
because we are responsible for the men
and women in uniform participating in
the fight against the coronavirus.
—Have the lessons drawn from
Operation Balmis been incorporated
into this operation?
—The Operations Command is
applying everything that has been
learned and executed in Operation
Balmis. It has now become evident
that we need to train contact tracers
and use them to confront the second
wave of COVID-19. We take into
consideration the effectiveness of our
organization, based on a Component
Command structure, which was
rapidly activated and implemented in
more than 20,000 interventions in 98
days. And this is thanks to the efforts
of all the Armed Forces members,
which is clear evidence of the military’s
commitment to our society.
I must highlight the great work carried
out by the Component Commands. The
Land Command provided society with a
wide variety of its personnel and materiel,
capable of evolving and adapting to
each situation; the Maritime Command
provided its own capabilities; and the
Air Command provided all air transport,
health and logistic capabilities. The
Military Medical Command managed to
combine its health capacity with military
training, thus demonstrating its versatility.
The Cyberspace Command, for its part,
worked on a daily basis to prevent the
collapse of the health system as a result
of a cyberattack. All this was Operation
Balmis, but now, through Mission Baluarte,
we continue to be at the service of Spain in
the fight against the coronavirus.
—In times of pandemic, is the ope-
rability of the Spanish contingents
still satisfactory?
—All operations are currently
conditioned to complying with the
strictest health and safety measures
required by the situation, both in
Spain and in the various areas abroad
where our soldiers, sailors and airmen
operate. This demands greater
effort on our part, and we face this
endeavour with the confidence that
we can defeat the virus sooner rather
than later and convinced that, even
authorities in the COVID-19 health
crisis, with the purpose of being more
efficient in the support provided. We
should not forget that the Army, Air
Force and Navy, together with the
Military Emergencies Unit, were
already providing the assistance
requested by the competent authorities.
In order to coordinate actions, we have
activated our Joint Operations Centre
(JOC), which remains operational
December 2020 Revista Española de Defensa 15