Around 1,127 members of the Armed Forces displayed their resources and capabilities on Friday afternoon at Las Alcaravaneras Beach in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria during a dynamic exhibition presided over by King Felipe VI.
Specifically, there were 161 soldiers from the Army, 812 members of the Navy, 28 from the Air and Space Army, 86 from the Civil Guard, and 40 from the Emergency Military Unit (UME).
Additionally, there were about 2,400 people occupying the seats set up on the beach among the public and authorities, as well as several thousand citizens gathered in the nearby avenue.
Among the authorities present were the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, the President of the Canary Islands Parliament, Astrid Pérez, the Vice President of the Canary Islands, Manuel Domínguez, the Mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Carolina Darias, and the President of the Gran Canaria Council, Antonio Morales.
Framed within the events of the ‘Armed Forces Day’, whose main event will take place on Saturday in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the King’s agenda in the Canary Islands began on Friday with a naval review in the waters of the capital of Gran Canaria carried out by His Majesty aboard the maritime action ship ‘Tornado’.
During the event, the Navy ships LPD ‘Juan Carlos I’, LHD ‘Castilla’, Frigate ‘Blas de Lezo’, Frigate ‘Álvaro de Bazán’, Frigate ‘Santa María’, S-81 ‘Isaac Peral’, A-41 Training Ship ‘Intermares’, BAM Tornado, BAM Rayo, and two TBD Ships participated. Meanwhile, on the part of the Civil Guard, the King reviewed the ship Río Segura and the ship Río Ara.
DYNAMIC EXHIBITION
Subsequently, Felipe VI moved to the central Las Alcaravaneras Beach where the dynamic exhibition took place with a demonstration of the naval, aerial, Marine Infantry, and landing capabilities by the Navy.
Additionally, the Army conducted a beach reconnaissance with a medical evacuation and a dynamic demonstration of sampling and NBQ decontamination.
Meanwhile, the Civil Guard carried out a simulation of intercepting high-speed boats dedicated to drug trafficking with the participation of maritime and aerial resources and a final arrest on the beach; and the UME performed an arrival of two boats on the beach with canine and rescue teams and a demonstration of searching for buried individuals.
The event concluded with a flyover by the Águila Patrol, an exhibition of a C-16 fighter from the Air and Space Army, and a demonstration by the Acrobatic Parachute Patrol (PAPEA) with a jump displaying the Spanish flag.
