BELFAST — Spain appears to have cancelled a €697 million ($823 million) contract for the acquisition of the High Mobility Rocket Launcher System (SILAM), developed from Israeli firm Elbit Systems’ Precise and Universal Rocket Launcher (PLUS) design.
A cancellation notice, published by Madrid’s procurement agency last week, does not provide an explanation for the move, but it sits in line with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s decision to accelerate approval of a Royal Decree Law, consolidating an existing arms embargo against Jerusalem. The move is one of nine actions the Spanish government said it plans to take to help “stop the genocide in Gaza, pursue its perpetrators, and support the Palestinian population.”
Once adopted, the Decree will establish “a legal and permanent ban on the purchase and sale of weapons, ammunition, and military equipment” to Israel, Spain’s central government announced last week. The AFP previously reported the cancelation of the SILAM deal.
The Spanish Ministry of Defense referred Breaking Defense to “recent comments” on the matter and other cancelled weapon buys of Israeli origin from Spanish Minister of Defense Margarita Robles.
“We have made it very clear that this technological material, which was being supplied to Spain by Israeli companies, will be replaced by Spanish industry,” she said.
“Additional measures” announced last week by Madrid in response to the Gaza conflict include a ban on any aircraft transiting Spanish airspace to transport defense equipment to Israel. Similarly, ships carrying fuel to the Israeli armed forces are prohibited from entering Spanish ports.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in response, accused Sánchez of antisemitism and barred two senior Spanish officials from entering Israel.
The SILAM contract was originally awarded in 2023 to a joint venture between Spanish companies Escribano Mechanical & Engineering and Rheinmetall Expal Munitions, a subsidiary of the German giant.
According to the Spanish Ministry of Defense (MoD), Expal, Escribano and Spanish technology firm GMV, displayed the SILAM solution at the FEINDEF trade show in 2023, alongside Elbit, prior to contract award. The weapon system was put forward for acquisition in order to address an “absence of artillery capability that arose a decade ago when the [Spanish Army’s] Teruel system was decommissioned,” noted the MoD at the time [PDF].
Elbit Systems company literature states that PULS “can fire a variety of ammunition types to various ranges from the same position, to ranges of up to 300km.” The system can fire munitions including Accular and Predator Hawk rockets. PULS European customers include Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands.
Earlier this year, Madrid cancelled a €285 million contract for the purchase of 168 launch units and 1,680 Spike LR2 anti-tank missiles produced by Israel’s Rafael. Elbit and Rafael did not immediately respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.