Changes

The intervention of the Armed Forces in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic under Operation Balmis was an example of the so-called new missions of the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, as a key tool for solving all kinds of crisis. The missions allotted to the Armed Forces were set forth in Spanish Organic Law 5/2005 on National Defence, which states: “The Armed Forces, together with the National Institutions and the Public Administrations, must preserve the security and well-being of citizens in case of serious risk, catastrophe, calamity and other public needs, in accordance with current legislation.” However, the first time that the Armed Forces took on this task was with Operation Balmis, as part of the effort to defeat COVID-19 (except for interventions of the Military Emergency Unit and 43 Air Force Group as well as minor interventions by some other units in recent years). Operation Balmis, which involved over 188,000 military professionals, was the largest peacetime effort in the history of the Spanish Armed Forces.

Spanish Royal Decree 463/2020 from 14 March 2020, on the state of alarm, was the legal framework for involving the Armed Forces in the fight against the pandemic. As soon as the political directives were received, it was decided to launch a military operation conducted by the Armed Forces. The Operations Command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff began planning and, almost simultaneously, executing Operation Balmis. It was named after the Spanish military doctor who had the insight to effectively bring the smallpox vaccine from Europe to the Americas in the 19th century.

Several factors were key to the success of Operation Balmis. The unit of command was adapted, the chain of command was simplified, and procedures were streamlined from requests for assistance to their fulfillment. All available assets worked under the Operations Command, organised into five Component Commands: Land, Sea, Air, Emergency and Military Health. Even the operation logistics were centralised.

Requests for support were forwarded directly to the Operations Command through the Government Delegates (the highest representatives of the national government in the different regions), who then forwarded them to the different ministries to manage the crisis. This support was validated, assigned and ordered in a systematic and simple process that allowed the requests to be fulfilled quickly. Basically, four main areas of support were considered: logistics, health, security and infrastructures. The most common tasks were disinfection, transfer of the sick, building field hospitals, transport of medical equipment by air and land, and presence to contribute to public security.

This last task was one of the first to be scaled down after the initial phase, as the population accepted the instructions for total mass lockdown. Nevertheless, patrols were maintained to support the police in border controls and critical infrastructure security until the end of the Operation.

The most delicate task for the soldiers was to transfer and guard the deceased in the temporary morgues set up during the period when the capacity of funeral services was overwhelmed. Initially, the Military Emergency Unit was in charge of this mission, which was later joined by other military professionals. One of the most common and critical tasks were military interventions in nursing homes (5,301), given the vulnerability of this population and the great extent to which it was affected by the pandemic. Initially, major activities included disinfections (11,061), although civilian professionals were also trained in the final stages in this task and were able to take over from the military units.

Transport was another key requirement, especially in the early stages, when medical material was brought from China to Spain in military aircrafts. Also of major importance is the support given to food pantries, which used military means to distribute food to the most deprived people.

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[[Categoría:Servicios y equipamientos sociales]]