Spain backs €12m ground‑drone program
- Spain’s Ministry of Defense and CDTI Innovation opened a €11.9 million tender to build two heavy unmanned ground vehicles, one wheeled and one tracked, for military and emergency missions. - The 30‑month program splits funding into €5.9 million for a wheeled UGV and €6.0 million for a tracked model, with bids due by 11:00 a.m. on May 25, 2026. - The tender follows a 2025 market consultation and recent Army field trials of Spanish UGVs in Almería, tying procurement to systems already being tested. (cdti.es)
Spain has opened a €11.9 million competition to develop two heavy ground drones for defense and emergency missions. (cdti.es) The buyer is CDTI Innovation, the state technology agency under Spain’s science ministry, acting for the Ministry of Defense under a pre-commercial procurement model. The budget is €11,905,308 including VAT, and the work is scheduled to run for 30 months. (cdti.es 1) (cdti.es 2) Spain split the program into two lots instead of asking for one machine to do everything. Lot 1 funds a wheeled UGV with €5,905,308, while Lot 2 funds a tracked UGV with €6,000,000. (cdti.es) (infodefensa.com) A ground drone, or unmanned ground vehicle, is a robotic vehicle that moves supplies, sensors or tools without a crew riding inside it. Spain’s tender calls for a heavy, modular platform that can be reconfigured for different jobs instead of a single-purpose robot. (cdti.es) The military use cases are specific: reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, logistics, medical evacuation, engineer support and peacekeeping. The same platform is also supposed to work in floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, search-and-rescue missions, snow removal and firefighting. (cdti.es 1) (cdti.es 2) The contract is structured as a down-select. Four contractors can advance through Phase I design work, then two move into prototype development in Phase II, and two remain for Phase III pre-operational validation. (cdti.es) The timeline started before this week’s tender. CDTI launched a preliminary market consultation on May 7, 2025, signed its agreement with the Defense Ministry on November 6, 2025, and published the tender on April 20, 2026. (cdti.es 1) (cdti.es 2) The money also comes with European backing. CDTI says the project is financed by the European Regional Development Fund under Spain’s 2021-2027 multi-regional program. (cdti.es) (cdti.es) Spain’s Army has been testing domestic ground robots in parallel. During the TEC 3 experimentation campaign in Viator, Almería, the Army evaluated Alisys Robotics’ Adriano and IDM’s Battlematic 400 for logistics and combat support roles. (infodefensa.com) Companies have until May 25, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. to bid. Spain is now asking industry for robots that can haul heavy loads into places where it does not want troops or rescue crews exposed. (cdti.es)
