Spain's Defense Minister Pedro Morenes expects a 12 to 14 percent cut in defense spending when the national budget is announced on Friday.

Speaking to Spanish state radio RNE, he admitted the military will not escape planned spending cuts.

"We will have to look at what it is going to affect. The reduction that we suffer is not going to be greater than that suffered by other ministries," Morenes said.

Calling the Spanish Defense Ministry debt of more than 31 billion euros (41 billion U.S. dollars) "an enormous problem," he said it was imperative to revise programs and readjust budgets to make the debt sustainable.

"The cuts could be hard, but it is the way we have to go," Morenes added.

The defense minister said the government as a whole was struggling to deal with the country's economic problems and that cutbacks were needed to stabilize the economy.

Morenes' remarks came two days before a general strike called to protest labor reforms implemented by Prime Minster Mariano Rajoy's government.