On the eve of such an important day, this Wednesday, December 23, the first VCR 8×8 Dragon vehicle of Trubia arrived at the new El Tallerón factory, owned by Indra – previously, Duro Felguera -, with the aim of validating its facilities (accessibility … passage of doors, maneuverability between posts, etc.) and advance in carrying out future final assembly activities. The vehicle is now fully finished at the Trubia facilities in Gijón and will remain at the Indra factory until it is sent for final testing at the Santa Bárbara Sistemas factory and on the test track in Alcalá de Guadaíra (Seville).
Furthermore, informed sources assure ABC that, precisely this Monday, December 22, Indra delivered to the Ministry of Defense 14 more 8×8 Dragon armored vehicles at the GDELS facilities in Alcalá de Guadaíra, which correspond to the infantry combat version (IFV), therefore the total number of units received already by the Army this current year, it amounts to 30, of the 57 that should be delivered before the end of the year, announced by Indra’s own CEO, José Vicente de los Mozos.
It should be remembered that the 8×8 armored program was awarded by the government to Tess Defense -a consortium led today by the company chaired by Ángel Escribano, Indra, which holds 51.1% of the capital, alongside Sapa Placencia, GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas and Escribano Mechanical & Engineering (EM&E), with 16.3% each – and that the first phase envisages the delivery of a total of 348 units of this armored vehicle in different versions.
General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS, owner of the Spanish company Santa Bárbara Sistemas) transported the 8×8 Dragon – in its sapper version, one of four available for this armored vehicle with infantry combat (IVC), forward observation (VCOAV) and command post (VCPC) versions – from its facilities in Trubia (Oviedo) to the Indra factory in Gijón.
The transfer is part of the industrial reorganization process of the 8×8 Dragon program, which foresees that the final assembly of these armored vehicles will gradually move from Trubia to Gijón. El Tallerón, which until a few months ago focused on the manufacture of heavy boilermaking, was acquired by Indra at the end of last June for an amount of 3.6 million euros.
Indra will invest a total of 43 million euros in the reconversion of El Tallerónan amount divided into 23.2 million euros for the adaptation of the facilities – which have an area of 76,000 square meters – and an additional 20 million euros for new industrial capacities.
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