Major General Miguel Ángel Orduña, head of the Plans Division of the Air Staff, said that the purpose of the event was “to break down the barriers faced by small and medium-sized enterprises in accessing the defense market” and to create links so that companies can learn about the needs of the Air and Space Force, present their technological developments and explore avenues for cooperation. “We want to promote bottom-up innovation, from small projects through to their standardization, offering companies a testing ground and new prospects,” he added.
For her part, Inmaculada Avellaneda, director of Labor Strategy and Collective Bargaining at CEOE Aragón, stressed that “Aragón has the industry, technology, knowledge and talent to provide solutions for strategic projects such as BACSI. “Many Aragonese companies are developing solutions for industry, logistics, energy, maintenance and mobility that can also respond to the specific needs of an air base. Our role as a business organization is to identify these opportunities and bring them closer to the productive fabric.”
COOPERATION OPPORTUNITIES
During the event, participants analyzed opportunities for cooperation in areas such as connectivity, advanced manufacturing, automation, robotics, data management, energy efficiency, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, virtual reality, smart maintenance and environmental sustainability. These are fields in which numerous Aragonese companies already have experience, expertise and technological capabilities.
The BACSI program, created with the vision of extending this connected, sustainable and intelligent standard to all air bases by 2040, is structured around eight major functional areas: connectivity; energy efficiency and environmental sustainability; information and knowledge management; force protection; operational security; sustainment 5.0; education; and operational management.
