The Spanish defense companies ARMMO Defense Technologies and GDELS Santa Bárbara Sistemas have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to advance the future-oriented integration of advanced autonomous technologies into armored vehicle platforms. As GDELS has stated, the aim of the partnership is to strengthen the technological and industrial capabilities of the Spanish defense sector and to develop state-of-the-art solutions for mobile air defense as well as counter-drone (Counter-UAS) defense.
A first practical milestone of this collaboration was successfully demonstrated during the ATLAS 26 military exercise in Huelva last week, led by the Spanish Air Defence Command. In the presence of senior representatives of the Spanish armed forces as well as NATO commanders — including General Admiral Manuel Teodoro López Calderón and Admiral Pierre Vandier — the autonomous interceptor BANDIT-X was launched and flown from the armored tracked vehicle platform ASCOD HMC.
High-Speed Drone BANDIT-X
BANDIT-X is a high-speed interceptor drone developed by ARMMO to counter unmanned aerial threats. The system reaches speeds of over 360 km/h (targeting 420 km/h) and a maximum altitude of up to 5,000 meters, has an endurance of 20 to 25 minutes and offers, depending on the mission profile, a range of 40 to 50 kilometers. Core capabilities include autonomous navigation in environments with disrupted or jammed GNSS reception, resilience to electronic jamming devices, and autonomous target acquisition in the terminal approach. The system was validated in NATO trials in Slovakia in 2026 and already has a NATO supply number (NSN).
Carrier Platform ASCOD HMC
The ASCOD HMC (Heavy Mission Carrier) carrier platform from GDELS Santa Bárbara Sistemas is characterized by a modular and scalable concept. Thanks to the open digital (GDELS-owned) NEVA architecture (New Electronic Vehicle Architecture), which conforms to the NATO Generic Vehicle Architecture Standard (NGVA), the vehicle enables flexible integration of a wide range of mission systems—from artillery and electronic warfare to air defense and counter-drone defense.
Mass Production Capability Meets Technological Specialization
The agreement links GDELS’s mass-production capability with ARMMO’s technological specialization. This collaboration underscores the potential of Spanish technology companies to rapidly integrate innovative capabilities into military large-scale systems and thereby significantly strengthen national as well as allied defense programs.
Author: Gerhard Heiming, Editor, Wehrwirtschaft
