Overview

• Spanish government pledges to boost Armed Forces by 14,000 personnel before 2035 under secret NATO capacity objectives.
• The troop increase is evenly divided with 7,000 recruits slated for 2025–2029 and another 7,000 for 2030–2034.
• Spain’s active military ranks of roughly 120,000 will see about an 11% expansion without altering legal force limits.
• Madrid maintains defense spending at 2.1% of GDP, rejecting NATO’s 5% proposal to safeguard social and welfare priorities.
• Military leadership warns that retaining highly trained technicians will be critical as forces modernize air defense, electronic warfare and satellite capabilities.