Readiness versus Enlistment

The Anglo-Saxon concept of “readiness” is equivalent in Spanish military terminology to that of “Alistamiento (Spanish term) or Enlistment”, which defines for a given unit the availability and operational capacity to carry out an assigned mission, for an established environment intensity. If any unit has the necessary personnel, training, and is properly equipped to carry out the assigned mission, then that unit is ready to deploy, fight and win. History shows us numerous examples of the cost that many nations have paid when their armed forces were unprepared to respond to their assigned missions and in particular to an unexpected attack. Without a doubt, the fear of not being in a position to respond to an unexpected attack is the greatest concern, although as we will see throughout the text there are other cases of equal relevance.