Spanish Army tests Destinus interceptor container launch system

King Felipe VI of Spain visited the Spanish Army’s Third Tactical Experimentation Campaign — known as TEC 3 — at Base Álvarez de Sotomayor in Viator, Almería this week, where aerospace company Destinus conducted a live container-launched interception demonstration with its Hornet B1 counter-drone system and displayed its Ruta platform on static exhibit.

The King, in his role as Captain General of the Spanish Armed Forces, spent considerable time at the Destinus station, asking detailed technical questions about how the Hornet B1 system operates. More than 20 Spanish defense companies brought systems to the field for the multi-day exercise, which is organized under the Spanish Army’s Future Force 2035 Center and designed to validate emerging autonomous technologies before potential acquisition.

According to Destinus, Felipe VI’s engagement at their station went well beyond ceremonial protocol.

The company noted that the King — who holds military training across all three branches of Spain’s armed forces and is a qualified helicopter pilot — listened closely and asked precise technical questions. “In a world where defence is increasingly discussed in abstractions, it matters when a head of state stands in a field in Almería and wants to understand how the system actually works,” Destinus said in a statement following the visit.

The Hornet B1 is an autonomous counter-drone interceptor designed to neutralize aerial threats including kamikaze drone swarms, reconnaissance UAVs, and unguided munitions. The system operates through a network of anti-drone nodes, each equipped with interceptor drones and detection sensors, and can be deployed from a container unit towable by light armored vehicles such as the URO VAMTAC. During the TEC 3 demonstration, Hornet B1 conducted a live interception from a container launcher — one of the system’s defining operational attributes that enables rapid deployment without fixed infrastructure. Destinus also presented its Ruta system on static display, expanding the company’s profile at the exercise beyond counter-UAS interception alone.

The Hornet platform is engineered to close a critical cost asymmetry that has plagued conventional air defense: existing interceptor missiles can cost upward of one million euros to take down commercially available drones that may cost as little as 35,000 euros. Hornet’s design philosophy targets that imbalance directly by providing a mass-producible, near-autonomous interception layer that can operate as a standalone system or integrate into broader ground-based air defense networks. The container-launched configuration means a small team can establish a defensive perimeter quickly, with minimal logistical footprint.

TEC 3 at Viator has become a focal event in Spain’s military modernization calendar. Base Álvarez de Sotomayor, situated in the Almería desert with sightlines to the Mediterranean, has served as the Spanish Army’s primary live testing ground for autonomous and unmanned systems. The exercise is structured around up to five separate experimentation zones distributed across the maneuvering grounds, where Legion units work alongside national defense companies to test, evaluate, and iterate on systems in field conditions. The format is explicitly designed not as a demonstration exercise but as a working laboratory — a direct pipeline from industry to military evaluation.

Destinus has operated in Spain since the company’s earliest days. Destinus Spain has engineering and development centers in the country and participates in national defense research programs, including the recently launched CRIPICOM project focused on aircraft propulsion and auxiliary systems. The company said TEC 3 represented a significant moment for its Spanish team: “Spain has been home to Destinus since the company’s earliest days. Our teams here design, build, and test — and weeks like this one remind everyone why.”