The Tess Defence consortium, led by Indra with 51.1% of the capital and in which Sapa Placencia, Escribano Mechanical & Engineering (EM&E), and Santa Bárbara Sistemas (GDELS) also participate, each with 16.3%, has delivered to the Ministry of Defense a new package of 16 VCR 8x8 Dragón vehicles, reaching the milestone of 100 units of the Wheeled Combat Vehicle supplied to the Army.
The delivery event was held this Tuesday at the Alcalá de Guadaíra plant (Seville), where the "effort of the entire industrial chain to meet the commitments of the program and achieve customer satisfaction with the final result" was highlighted, as stated in a statement released by the consortium.
In the same note, Tess Defence emphasizes that "the acceleration achieved in the delivery rate of vehicles allows us to face new challenges with full confidence to meet the delivery of the 348 units planned before the end of 2028".
Production rate and industrial consolidation
In the first half of the year, Tess Defence has managed to double the delivery rate planned for 2025, reaching 43 units supplied. With the arrival of unit number 100, "the program accelerates the cadence even further and consolidates the industrial maturity of the program".
To reach this level of production, Indra "has focused on promoting internal collaboration among partners and increasing national industrial capacity, reinforcing the industrial base of defense in Spain, strengthening technological sovereignty and the autonomy of the Army, and thus contributing to ensuring the agile and flexible sustainment of the VCR 8x8 and future platforms of the Army".
Thanks to these deliveries, the Legion Brigade, based in Viator (Almería), and the 1st Engineers Regiment, in Burgos, already have a sufficient fleet of vehicles to conduct trials under conditions similar to those of a real mission, with the goal of achieving the initial operational capability of the Dragón before the end of the year.
Technological leap and digitalization of the Army
According to the consortium, "The entry into service of the Dragon will represent a significant technological leap in the transformation and digitalization of the Army, as defined in the 'Force Plan 35'," emphasizing that this platform offers levels of protection, tactical mobility, and firepower "far above those offered by other vehicles on the market, as well as maximum interoperability and growth capacity to incorporate future technologies in an agile manner."
Likewise, Tess Defence focuses on the fact that "its open architecture and high level of digitalization distinguish this platform and allow it to incorporate advanced solutions for artificial intelligence and multi-domain collaborative combat, key to providing real superiority to the Army on the ground."