Portuguese Armed Forces
After the conturbed transition period between 1974 and 1975, Portugal became a democratic state. Reforms on the military structure would then start to ensure it would meet the requirements for a possible Cold War conflict and later for the New World Order scenario.
Between 1975 and 2007 several major changes were made. A Defense Ministry was created which would be in charge of the three military branches although officially the President of Portugal would be the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Many units were disbanded with the end of the colonial war (mainly Infantry) since high manpower was no longer needed and the counter-guerrilla doctrine would change to a more conventional one. The conscription for the Army and for the Navy ended in 2004 while the Air Force was professionalized a while before.
Paratroopers (Tropas Páraquedistas) would be transferred from the Air Force to the Army in 1994 and the Commandos (Comandos) would be disbanded only to be recreated in 2002. However four years later these two special units would be joined under the same Brigade along with the Special Operations Forces (Operações Especiais).
Military Police would be renamed as Army Police (Policia do Exercito) and the other two branches would receive equivalent units, the Air Police (Policia Aérea) and the Naval Police (Policia Naval), in the Air Force and Navy respectively. In 1992 a Naval Aviation (Aviação Naval) unit was created to give the Fleet more efficiency in coastal surveillance and maritime patrols.
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Current strength
Country financial problems and persistent lack of will of the Portuguese governments and Defense Ministers has led to rather poorly equipped and understrength Armed Forces. Its professionalization lead to a reduction in overall 30,000 men on all three branches but still the Portuguese military holds the 74th position in the international comparison in terms of manpower, a good ranking for such a small state.
Currently the Portuguese military forces have 44,900 men with the majority of the manpower allocated to the Army although its Chief of Staff, General José Ramalho, has already stated that more men are needed.
Due to Portugal's low ranging capabilities, recent defence policy has a stated assumption that any considerable operation would be undertaken only under NATO or ONU mandate. East-Timor, Kosovo and Afghanistan may all be taken as precedent – indeed the last large scale military action in which the Portuguese Armed Forces fought alone was the overseas conflict (Ultramar).
Despite the lack of brand new equipment (not counting second hand gear) since 1974 until the 21st century (except for the Air Force which received two packages of F-16A Fighting Falcons from the US National Guard that are currently being modernized under the Mid Life Update program) all international missions assigned to the military have been fulfilled without limitations. A Military Programation Law (Lei de Programação Militar) was launched in 2002 to start modernization of the Armed Forces but considerable reequipment of the military only started by 2003, with Defense Minister Paulo Portas, who managed to acquire new helicopters (Army and Air Force), submarines, IFV (Army and Navy), frigates and naval patrol boats. Ironically one of the most important issues, the replacement of the light firearms, failed during his mandate. The actual government also started reequipment with the purchase of new battle tanks in early 2008.
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References
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External links
- Portuguese Ministry of Defense
- Portuguese Armed Forces Chief of Staff
- Portuguese Army
- Portuguese Air Force
- Portuguese Navy
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