"Spanish Armoured Cavalry TO&E - 1980s" Topic

I'm trying to find out the TO&E of a Spanish Light Armoured Cavalry Regiments in the late 1980s. I've got a list of equipment – 48x VEC armoured cars, 31x tanks, 26x M113, 16x M113 (120mm mortar carrier), 13 rifle squads and 1 motorcycle squad and the suggestion that there were three 'squadons', but I've no idea how these were organised. Does anyone know?

"Know" is stretching things, but putting those numbers together with more recent practice I'd be fairly confident of the following….

First up, 5 squadrons – normal practice seems to be a 3-squadron light armoured group, and a 2-squadron support group (one tank, one infantry.)

Light armoured squadron:
1x VEC HQ
3x Platoons, each of 1x VEC HQ, 2x 2 VEC Patrols, 1x 2 Tank Support Patrol.
[3 of gives us our 48 VECs, and 18 tanks.]

Tank squadron.
1 HQ and 3 platoons of 4, which means the tank total tallies at least….

Infantry squadron.
1 HQ and 3 platoons of 4. 13 squads and M113s.

This is where I'm out though, with 13 M113s and 16 mortar carriers to account for. Modern organisation seems to have the mortars in platoons of 3 mortar carriers plus an M113, which obviously doesn't fit. Bumping them up to 4 would give one platoon per squadron (except the tanks) which at least fits the numbers….

As for the remaining 9 M113s, no real idea, but presumably they belong to various HQ elements, and maybe an anti-tank platoon with the infantry company – the more recent organisation has a platoon of 7 BMRs, 4 with TOW and 2 carrying Milan teams. Something similar would make sense and only leave two "surplus" M113s – one of which would seem reasonable in the HQs of the light armoured group and support group, probably as well as an M-577 based on the bottom link.

Dom.

link
link
link (Lots of TO&E diagrams, but no date – they look 1990s at a glance though.)

Dom's description is pretty good, here is another page that breaks down the organization for a current regiment.

link

link

Pretty sure Dom's third link is the 1990's, based on the IFV.

Great stuff! Very helpful! That third link of Dom's also answers my next question – what's the organisation of an Armoured Cavalry Regiment (as opposed to a Light Armoured Cavalry Regiment). :)

Actually, thinking about it, I wonder if the 16 mortar carriers is a cock-up, and it should be 12 and 4 more M113s? (Ie. 4 platoons of 4 vehicles was assumed to mean 16 mortar carriers.) That'd fit the 1990s organisation spot on then I think, with 4 more M113s in the HQ company.

That's what I was thinking – 16 seems like a huge amount. I was also wondering if some of the 'M113s' were ambulances and M577s.

I don't think so – looking through the more recent stuff, the numbers seem to correspond. Assuming that it should be 30x M113 and 12x SP Mortar, the 113s do seem to fit, as long as there were indeed 7 to an anti-tank platoon:

20 Mech Company (1 HQ, 12 Platoons, 7 AT.)
0 RHQ (It has 2 M577s and various soft MT.)
2 Comms Platoon.
1 Recce Platoon.
2 Ambulances.
2 GCMC HQ (One is in HQ, other a fitter's vehicle. Also 1 M577, 1 ARV and various soft MT.)
1 GCAC HQ (Also 1 M577, 2 ARV and various soft MT.)
4 Mortar Platoon HQs. (Plus the 12x 120mm carrier obviously.)

That'd give 32 (including 2 ambulances, which might not count towards the total) plus 4x M-577.

Aha, so what you're saying is that it was 12 mortars with 16 M113s rather than 16 mortars? That makes more sense.

Supposition on my part, but the numbers all seem to fit then; obviously I'm making some assumptions in translating the older equipment list onto a '90s TO&E, but they seem reasonable, especially as I believe those regiments had their big reorganisation when the VEC was introduced in the early to mid '80s.

Your assumptions do seem to make the best sense!

As you say, there were massive reorganisations of Spanish cavalry regiments in the 1980s. In the early 1980s there seem to have been three types of cavalry regiment:

Divisional Armoured Cavalry – 23x M41 Walker Bulldog & 21x M113

Light Armoured Cavalry (three to the Jarama Cavalry Brigade, plus 1x Armoured Cavalry Regt) – 2x Tank Squadrons, each with 17x M41, 1x Mech Sqn with 13x M113 & 1x Mixed Squadron with 5x M41 & 13x M113.

Armoured Cavalry (one in the Jarama Cavalry Brigade – elsewhere?) – 3x Mixed Squadrons, each of 5x M41 and 13x M113.

Each Motorised Infantry Battalion also seems to have had a Mechanised (recce?) Company, equipped with 5x M41 and 13x M113. Again, this disappeared at some point during the 1980.

It's all very confusing!

Anyone know who in the Spanish Army used Panhard AMLs?

They had just over 200 of them – around 100 each of AML-60 and AML-90 – and kept them throughout the 80s and well into the 90s, but I can't find them listed in any unit TO&Es.

Foreign legion spring to mind – I'm also doubtful about them being in service that late – my notes say it was gone by 1986, and that the 90mm armed VECs received their armament from the AML-90 fleet.

They were still on-strength in 1991, according to arms-limitation strength returns, though I agree they were probably held in war reserve.

I'd read that the few 90mm-armed VECs were unwanted export models (and that the Spanish Army stuck 25mm turrets on them).

In 1981 there is a reference to the Spanish Army having 'two Armoured Car Regiments' – this pre-dates the VEC's introduction, so I assume that these must be the AMLs. My guess is that these were maybe the two Armoured Cavalry Regiments in North Africa (one each with the Ceuta and Melilla garrisons) that by 1989 were equipped with M48A5 tanks.