Photo: Indra Group

Spain’s Indra Group has signed a new financing agreement with the European Investment Bank worth 385 million euros ($447 million) to invest in the defense and space sector. The loan announced July 15 is aimed at investments in radar, electronic defense, electro-optics, command and control communications, and advanced digitalization. 

Notably, this is the largest EIB’s financing agreement in Spain to date to strengthen the European Union security and defense capabilities. It is part of EIB Group’s efforts to strengthen European security and defense capabilities, and contributes to the TechEU initiative.

The funds will support Indra Group’s plans to build an integrated technology center in the Madrid region with laboratories and advanced manufacturing technologies to serve the defense and space sector.

“This agreement is about turning new ideas into real capabilities across Europe’s defense and space ecosystem,” said EIB Vice-President Robert de Groot. “Space in particular has a critical role in Europe’s security and defense. By backing Indra’s innovation and supporting the creation of its Technology Hub, we are helping Europe stay ahead of the curve in technology, in resilience and in its ability to act with greater autonomy in a fast-changing world.”

This comes amid a push from European nations to invest more in defense and space capabilities. France and the United Kingdom, for example, are making large investments into Eutelsat Group, and a number of European nations have made new investments into Earth observation satellites or access to EO data in recent weeks.

A recent report from the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) found that Europe’s space sector is attracting record investment, particularly for companies with security applications. ESPI also reported that Europe’s space sector will benefit from increased defense spending in Europe.