EVERY DAY IS OPERATION ITHE ARMED FORCES SUPPORT THE POPULATION AND PUBLIC T’S Saturday, April 4th. At the Re-
tamares base Joint Operations
Centre, several military personnel
in field uniforms and wearing masks
are processing large amounts of
data on their computers. In front
of them, a large screen shows the
distribution throughout Spain of the
more than 8,000 military personnel
deployed in the fight against the
coronavirus. This room is the nerve
centre of Operation Balmis, named
after the military doctor who brought
the smallpox vaccine to the territories
of the Spanish empire in America and
the Philippines at the beginning of the
19th century. “We are at war with an
invisible and unconventional enemy”,
declares Lieutenant General Fernando
López del Pozo, commander of the
Operations Command, to whom the
Chief of Defence Staff has entrusted an
unprecedented mission: to coordinate
the deployment of the military in
hundreds of locations throughout the
autonomous communities to support
the population and the public services
in their efforts to contain the spread of
the virus.
Disinfection of critical areas, support
for field hospitals, assembly of shelters
for the homeless, transport of medical
12 Revista Española de Defensa April 2020