Photo By Lt. Daniel Ehrlich | MADRID (April 9, 2025) – Spanish Army Comandante Francisco Teijido Lopez, standing,...... read more read more
MADRID (April 9, 2025) - The U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) Spain hosted the annual Bilateral Training and Exercise Conference (BTEC) alongside the Spanish military joint staff, Estado Mayor de la Defensa, at El Centro Superior de Estudios de la Defensa Nacional (CESEDEN), April 8-9, 2025. BTEC 2025 brought together more than 80 military professionals from the United States Navy, Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps and Spanish Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Military Emergencies Unit (UME) to work side-by-side in planning combined training events for the upcoming year, which increases interoperability between the two allies.
“The purpose of BTEC is to get approval from the Spanish Joint Staff to conduct bilateral engagements in Spain,” said U.S. Marine Corps Col. Romeo Cubas, U.S. Spain Permanent Committee operations officer and chief organizer for the U.S. contingent at BTEC 2025. “It expedites the execution of the events with the individual components and their Spanish counterparts.”
U.S. Navy Capt. Karsten Spies, chief of ODC Spain, and Spanish Marine Corps Col. Jose Ignacio Yaniz Lopez officially commenced BTEC 2025 by welcoming participants and with opening remarks. From there, attendees split into working groups, known as syndicates, that focused on a specific operational component, including air, land, maritime, special operations, and support (emergency, medical, and cyber).
This year’s conference yielded 114 combined training and exercise events scheduled for 2026 with 16 of those being newly proposed this year. The trainings proposed during the conference are finalized at the end of the conference during a plenary session and subsequently forwarded to the Spanish Ministry of Defense for approval to execute them.
“Combined training plays a crucial role in increasing the readiness and deterrence power of U.S. forces in Spain and elements of those stationed elsewhere in Europe and enhances interoperability with our Spanish allies,” said Spies.
BTEC is an opportunity for military units from both nations to compare training calendars and find overlap. Often, the overlap provides a chance for these units to combine their training events, which can serve the purpose of both increasing interoperability for U.S. units operating in Spain to work alongside their hosts to solve problems together and to fulfill U.S. theater strategic plans to maximize readiness and preparedness for any conflict.
“Our training tends to focus at the unit-level, so here we are able to build partnerships at the small unit-level with our counterparts,” said U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Michael Guzman, company commander for Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team Company, Europe, who sat in on the land syndicate. “BTEC allows us to build good relationships with our partners and allows me to keep my Marines ready and trained for all their future missions.”
The conference didn’t just include military representatives from operational units, but also representatives from the U.S. installations hosted on several Spanish bases. The U.S. Navy has five ships homeported out of Naval Station Rota, which is a U.S. installation hosted by the Spanish Armada at Rota Naval Base. The installation also has 45 other commands present from four U.S. military branches that fulfill a variety of operational missions. In addition, U.S. forces are hosted at Morón Air Base, Torrejon Air Base, and Military Base Betera. With such a significant forward-deployed capability, personnel representing these installations, including U.S. Navy Cmdr. Henry Morgan, operations officer for U.S. Naval Station Rota, emphasized the coordination of U.S. assets at these installations with their Spanish hosts.
“The big events we’ve been talking about involve our forward-deployed naval force ships and giving them opportunities to train alongside the Spanish,” said Morgan. “Making sure the Spanish know what to expect and the fleet assets know what they have available to them is important to keep mutually moving forward.”
While much of the discussion revolved around training and exercises to improve interoperability and the capabilities of the two forces, it also focused on setting up opportunities to practice and prepare for emergencies and disasters. One of the key emergency management and response components of the Spanish armed forces present at BTEC, UME, led the charge in discussing key emergency preparation exercises.
“We will work together, which will involve greater understanding of our militaries, our capabilities,” said Capt. Sergio Nunez, an officer with the contingent representing UME at BTEC 2025. “And, of course, greater understanding of training to respond to whatever the future may hold.”
For decades, BTEC has been an annual staple in the U.S.-Spain military relationship. This year’s BTEC 2025 venue, CESEDEN, was an example of the amount of planning and the value of this annual meeting between both the allies’ military contingents.
“The planning process takes almost a year,” said Spanish Army Comandante Francisco Teijido Lopez, chief organizer for the Spanish contingent at BTEC 2025. “This year, the event was held at a historic building in Madrid whose facilities host the most important joint courses of the Spanish armed forces.
The U.S.-Spain relationship dates back much further than the arrival of U.S. forces in 1953, and BTEC is just a small example of the extended partnership between the two allies. Throughout BTEC, participants talked, laughed, and socialized through the halls of CESEDEN, passing portraits highlighting shared moments of Spanish-American military partnership.
“Long before we became treaty allies, Spain was one of our oldest military partners, helping us gain our independence in the Revolutionary War so that we can now celebrate our 250th birthday as a Navy and as a nation,” said Spies, “We are honored to continue building readiness and operating together with the Spanish forces.”
The Spain-U.S. Bilateral Training and Exercise Conference (BTEC) is a co-hosted, collaborative meeting between units from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the Spanish Ministry of Defense (MoD) with the chief goal of building joint force interoperability and readiness, while fostering the long-enduring defense partnership between Spain and the United States.
| Date Taken: | 04.09.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.30.2025 13:58 |
| Story ID: | 496598 |
| Location: | MADRID, ES |
| Web Views: | 43 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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