Reporting to the Spanish government, Minister of Defense Margarita Robles listed "five naval systems" as part of the military aid provided by the country to Ukraine so far. Local media Infodefensa believes these "clues" point to the Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Following the department's policy, the names, quantities and terms of deliveries for the items in the list are not disclosed. Nonetheless, it is the first ever mention of Spain sending naval weapons to Ukraine. So far, we knew only about Harpoon missiles provided by Great Britain and the Netherlands, and launchers for them by Denmark.
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Spain could "spare" only five missiles because its navy is gradually switching to NSM missiles. At first glance, it looks like a rather small provision.
But the real impact of this aid we can see by drawing a few parallels. First, there is no open data on how many Harpoon missiles were handed by the UK and Holland. Perhaps in comparison, Spain's contribution is a fairly significant reinforcement.
Ukraine's Navy top commander Oleksiy Neizhpapa, commenting for the Ukrainian media, recalled that it took only two "Neptun" missiles to destroy the missile cruiser "Moskva", the flagship of the russian Black Sea Fleet.
In standard conditions, such a target would take about 5-7 missiles, for example, of the same Harpoon type. The Harpoon, as a reminder, was developed specifically against big russian surface warships, such as the Project 1164 missile cruisers.
In other words, Spain armed the Ukrainian Navy with a stock of missiles enough to guarantee destruction of the infamous cruiser.
Worth to mention, the Naval Forces of Ukraine used Harpoon coastal defense system during the battles for Zmiinyi Island (a.k.a. Snake Island) last summer, and some data indicates these missiles took down two russian ships. The first one is known, it was the Vasiliy Bekh support vessel; and the other is still unknown.
If we consider that the very fact of arrival of Harpoon missiles warded the russians off the southern coast of Ukraine and prevented a landing operation near the port city of Odesa, we can also draw one more parallel.
Usually, two missiles are launched on a naval target: one to hit, and the second as insurance if something goes in discord with the plan. Thus, the amount provided by Spain is enough to destroy or at least damage two russian landing crafts.
On a final note, we can also recall history: at the beginning of the Falklands War in 1982, Argentina had only five Exocet anti-ship missiles, and it took three of them to destroy the British "HMS Sheffield" and the "Atlantic Conveyor" container ship, the "heart" of logistics and an auxiliary aircraft carrier, the fourth missile damaged the "HMS Glamorgan" destroyer on the night of June 12, 1982. And as the British military later admitted themselves, such significant losses almost threatened to disrupt the entire operation to liberate the Falkland Islands.
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