The 31st Mechanized Infantry Regiment “Asturias” (Regimiento de InfanterÃa Mecanizada “Asturias” nº 31) is a mechanized infantry unit in the Spanish Army. It was created in the autonomous region of Asturias on July 6, 1703. Its first commander was Ãlvaro Navia Osorio y Vigil, Viscount of Puerto de Vega and Marquis de Santa Cruz de Marcenado. The regiment initially consisted of 600 men. It was also known as El Cangrejo (“The Crab”), a name which it obtained following the campaign in Roussillon from 1793 to 1795, during which it never retreated. The patron saint of the regiment was Our Lady of Covadonga.
The ASCOD (Austrian Spanish Cooperation Development) armoured fighting vehicle family is the product of a cooperation agreement between Austrian Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG (in 1998 the production of heavy armed vehicles was sold out under the name Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug, which is now the producer) and Spanish General Dynamics Santa Bárbara Sistemas (both companies are now divisions of a unit of General Dynamics). The ASCOD family includes the LT 105, a light tank equipped with a 105 mm gun, a SAM launcher, an anti-tank missile launcher, mortar carrier, R&R vehicle, Command & Control vehicle, ambulance, artillery observer, and the AIFV model. In Spanish service, the vehicle is called Pizarro, while the Austrian version is called Ulan.
