Spain's Council of Ministers has approved a contract to implement a program for procuring wheeled bridge layers for the Spanish army, which are necessary to support engineering units that must be equipped with special crossing assets to guarantee support, mobility and protection of units on national territory, as well as ensure the ability to move resources for the benefit of the population.
The bridge layer procurement project is one of the items in a large-scale modernization program from the countrys government. The bridge layers will be purchased to support units that will be equipped with VCR Dragon armored vehicles, as reported by Infodefensa.
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The contract implementation period from the moment of signing is until November 30, 2030, with no extension provided.
Under the agreement, up to 32 bridge layers are to be procured, with a preliminary estimated cost of €315.702 million. That is, the approximate cost of one bridge layer is €9.865 million. And this is once again very illustrative of how expensive weapons are now.
Because, for example, relatively recently about five years ago for $8-10 million you could buy not a bridge layer, but an entire tank, the cost of which today can reach several tens of millions of dollars, using the example of the Leopard 2.
And speaking of prices from five years ago, for example, in December 2020, South Korean Hyundai Rotem received a contract for 54 K2 Black Panther MBTs worth $481.4 million that is, $8.914 million per vehicle, and the K2 somehow had the reputation of being the world’s most expensive tank at the time.
Although later India announced the price for its Arjun Mk-1A, and there the price tag per vehicle came out to $10.338 million.
Defense Express previously reported that additional TRML-4D radars, which are known for their use in the Iris-T SLM air defense system, will be ordered for Ukraine by the end of the year.
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