|
Portugal National Security
Armed Forces (1992):Total personnel on active
duty,
58,000, of which 33,000 conscripts; army 32,700 (24,800
conscripts); navy, 15,300 (5,000 conscripts); air force,
10,300
(3,000 conscripts). Reserves (all services), 190,000.
Major Units: Army had six territorial commands
with one
composite brigade, three infantry brigades, and one
special
forces brigade; navy had three commands (mainland, Azores,
Madeira), and 2,500 marines organized into three
battalions (two
infantry and one police); air force of one operational
command of
eighteen squadrons, including three attack squadrons.
Military Equipment (1992) : Army had about 130
tanks,
250 armored personnel carriers, variety of other combat
vehicles;
300 pieces of towed artillery; forty-eight TOW
(tube-launded,
optically tracked, wire-guided) missiles, forty-five Milan
wire
guided missiles, and seventeen SAM (surface-to-air)
missiles; and
240 recoilless launchers. Navy had three submarines,
eleven
frigates (including three MIKO 200s), and twenty-nine
patrol and
coastal boats. Air force had ten Alpha Jets, about seventy
A-7
and A-7P Corsairs, and six Lockheed P-3B Orion maritime
reconnaissance aircraft. Major transport aircraft included
six C130H Hercules and fifty-two CASA C-212 planes of various
types.
Military Budget 1991: US$1.7 billion, 2.8
percent of
GDP.
Foreign Military Treatries: Founding member of
NATO.
Treaty signed in 1951 and periodically renewed permits
United
States use of Lajes Air Base on Terceira Island in Azores.
Internal Security Forces: National Republican
Guard
(Guarda Nacional Republicana--GNR), heavily armed
paramilitary
constabulary) consisted in 1990 of about 19,000 personnel
organized into battalions in major cities and companies in
district capitals. Equipped with Commando armored cars and
Alouette II helicopters, it available to quell
demonstrations and
labor unrest. Public Security Police (Polícia de Segurança
Pública--PSP), paramilitary force responsible for security
in
urban areas, consisted of 17,000 personnel in 1990.
Subsection,
Intervention Police, could be deployed anywhere in the
country.
Fiscal Guard (Guarda Fiscal), border control force with
staff of
8,500 in 1990. It also investigated tax evasion and
financial
fraud.
Data as of January 1993
|
