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600 midshipmen, and 115 aviators. Commissioned officers total approximately 3,600. Approximately 86% of the navy's (and naval infantry) enlisted men are conscripts; 8% are short-term volunteers. About 1,600 officers and 12,000 enlisted men are assigned to sea duty.

Naval reserve personnel, including naval infantry reservists, amount to approximately 310,000, of whom about 70,000 could be mobilized within 60 days. There are, however, no organized reserve units.

3. Training

The Directorate of Naval Instruction, under the guidance of the Chief of the Personnel Department, is responsible for most training activities. The navy has a complete school system which provides basic, technical, and advanced instruction, but the system is limited by the low educational level of enlisted men, the short time served by conscripts, and an overemphasis on theory.

There has been considerable improvement in training, largely as a result of assistance provided by the MAP. Schools and technical training centers have received US equipment, and both officer and enlisted personnel have taken US Navy special courses, thereby forming a nucleus of technically qualified people. Schools are patterned after US Navy facilities, employ US methods of instruction, and are generally adequate to meet the navy's training requirements.

Because of a shortage of trained enlisted men, however, the navy depends upon officers to perform many technical duties which in other navies are normally performed by senior petty officers. Overall, the quality of training is not as high as in more advanced navies. There is no program of refresher or continuing training for reservists.

Afloat training and the fleet training centers stress ASW and minesweeping. Practical training is also given in gunnery, fire control, damage control, firefighting, and the operation of electronic equipment. Spanish naval forces participate in ASW and minesweeping exercises with units of the US, French, Italian, and Portuguese Navies, as as a result their efficiency is gradually improving.

Naval schools and training facilities are concentrated in the Madrid, El Ferrol del Caudillo, Cadiz, and Cartagena areas. Candidates for line officer commissions attend a 5-year course at the Naval Academy at Marin, including 1 year at sea aboard a sail training ship. Officer candidates for the naval infantry, engineering, and supply corps also take a 5-year course at the Naval Academy but concentrate on subjects dealing with their special fields and undergo less shipboard training. Basic training of enlisted men devotes much time to non-naval subjects and to elementary education. Specialist schools, most of which have courses for both enlisted men and officers, offer training in various technical fields, including gunnery, electronics, communications, engineering, and amphibious warfare. Conscripts may qualify in some 30 semi-skilled trades and receive additional pay.

The Naval War College offers a senior course for prospective flag officers and a junior course for lieutenant commanders and lieutenants. Both courses are open to selected officers from the other services, and the junior course is open to selected foreign officers. The senior course lasts for 3 months and the junior course for 2 years. Some naval officers attend the Superior Schools (war colleges) of the army and the air force as well as the Superior National Defense Studies Center (CESEDEN), a tri-service school; naval infantry officers also attend the Army General Staff School. Selected officers may attend the Naval Command and Staff College in Nationalist China under an exchange agreement. Some officers attend courses in France, where training in submarines is being given as a result of the Daphne-class submarine construction program. Because of political considerations, no Spanish officers have attended schools in the United Kingdom since 1963. Naval infantry officers train at Marine Corps schools in the United States. (Of some 120 Spanish naval officers who have trained in the United States since 1970, 20 have been naval infantry officers).

Important naval training facilities, locations, and courses offered are listed in the following tabulation:

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090014-1