The Military Emergency Unit (UME) is a joint military force that is permanently organized and tasked with intervening anywhere in the national territory in the event of a disaster or when the safety of citizens is at risk. Its command has direct communication with the Ministry of Defense, and one of its main features is that its battalions are distributed across the entire Spanish geography, enabling them to deploy to any point in the country in less than four hours.

Operation Balmis was launched on March 15, 2020. Following the declaration of the state of emergency on March 14, four delegated authorities were appointed, with the main one being the head of the Ministry of Health, alongside the Ministries of the Interior, Transport, and Defense, and a fifth authority, the Ministry of Social Affairs. At that moment, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, ordered the Chief of the Defense Staff to establish a force under her direct command capable of integrating all the support the Armed Forces could provide to the national health system.

General Cuesta highlights, in this regard, the rapid response of the UME, which was prepared to act, and by March 15 had deployed its personnel throughout Spain. This quick action, which allowed the UME to bear the heaviest burden of operations in the early moments of the pandemic, when the situation was most critical, was due to the anticipation of an imminent outbreak of the pandemic, thanks to the Coraza Plan that was activated after observing the spread of the pandemic in Italy. The objective of the plan was to implement self-protection measures without affecting the UME’s command and operational capacity.

Regarding the tasks performed by the UME within Operation Balmis, since March 15, reconnaissance patrols were carried out to assess the need for assistance. As a result, more than 50% of the personnel were assigned to disinfection tasks for essential infrastructure such as transportation systems, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. They also assisted in transporting patients between hospitals and even transferring the deceased to provisional morgues. Parallel to these tasks, they developed procedures for training and creating protocols for action against Covid-19.

General Cuesta concludes his presentation by emphasizing the UME’s resilience and innovation in fighting the pandemic, which was evident in the adaptation of available resources to the tasks required, such as transforming firefighting equipment into tools for disinfecting surfaces, as well as deploying a wide-ranging psychological support initiative for UME personnel to help them cope with the psychological uncertainty caused by the fight against the pandemic.

Sofía Alfayate
Communication Assistant, INCIPE