Portuguese Air Force

Força Aérea Portuguesa
Lineup	July 1, 1952
Country	Portugal
Type	Armed Forces (Força Aérea Portuguesa)
insignia
Aircraft cockade
National emblem ( vertical stabilizer )

The Força Aérea Portuguesa (FAP) are the air forces of the Republic of Portugal and one of four branches of the Portuguese Armed Forces . They have a staff of around 6,500 men and women.

The headquarters are subordinate to three main commands for operations management, training, administration and logistics. The airfields and other facilities are subordinate to these, depending on the order. Two small aerobatic teams are maintained, the Asas de Portugal with two Alpha jets and the Rotores de Portugal with three Aérospatiale SA-319 Alouette III helicopters.

history

Military aviation in Portugal began in 1912 and the Portuguese military aircraft were used by the army and navy in the aviation commandos known as Aeronáutica Militar and Aviação Naval.

An F-16 of the FAP

On July 1, 1952, these two commands were combined to form the independent Força Aérea Portuguesa. The aircraft that were taken over were mostly types from the Second World War. In addition to allied machines of various types, the Ju-52 was also operated .

In 1956, three regional commands were set up: The units in the motherland and / or in the North Atlantic were subordinate to the 1ª Região Aérea based in Lisbon . The 2ª Região Aérea for the South Atlantic was located in Luanda and the 3ª Região Aérea in today's Maputo was responsible for the territories on the Indian Ocean and Macau .

After the Carnation Revolution in 1974, which was followed by the loss of most of the overseas territories, the air forces were reorganized and again in the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War. During these years some air bases were closed and a naval squadron with helicopters was set up. An important modernization push was the commissioning of the used and meanwhile modernized Lockheed Martin F-16AM / BM , which today form the backbone of the Força Aérea.

In the mid- 2000s , Portugal , like Germany , took over used Dutch , in this case four, P-3C / CUP Orion maritime patrol aircraft and a little later the influx of new AW101 Merlin SAR and transport helicopters began.

equipment

As of the end of 2019

plane	origin	use	version	active	Stored	Ordered	Remarks
Warplanes
Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon	United States	Multipurpose fighter	F-16A	27
Maritime patrol aircraft
CASA C-295	Spain	Maritime reconnaissance	C-295	5
Lockheed P-3 Orion	United States	Maritime reconnaissance	P-3C / P	5
Transport aircraft
Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules	United States	Military transporter	C-130H	5
CASA C-295	Spain	Tactical transport aircraft	C-295	7th
Embraer KC-390	Brazil	Tactical transport aircraft	KC-390			5
Dassault Falcon 50	France	VIP transport plane	Falcon 50	3
helicopter
AgustaWestland AW101 Merlin	Italy , United Kingdom	Medium-weight transport helicopter	3 different	12
Agusta A119	Italy		AW119Kx	5
Aérospatiale SA-319 Alouette III	France	helicopter	SA-316	8th			out of service 2020
Training planes and helicopters
Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon	United States	Trainer aircraft	F16B	3
Aerospatiale TB30 Epsilon	France	Trainer aircraft	TB30	16

The Alouette III of the Rotores de Portugal

Due to technical problems with the Merlins, four Pumas were temporarily reactivated at the end of 2009.

Air bases

The Asas de Portugal Alpha Jets

The Força Aérea Portuguesa operates four larger military airfields , Bases Aéreas Principais on the Iberian Peninsula, which are organized similarly to those of other air forces in a flying, maintenance and support group each (as of 2013):

• Base Aérea de Sintra (Base Aérea Nº 1), school base with the Esquadra 101 (TB 30) and the main location of the Military Aviation Museum
• Base Aérea de Monte Real (Base Aérea Nº 5) , Monte Real , fighter aircraft base with the Esquadras 201 and 301 (F-16)
• Base Aérea do Montijo (Base Aérea Nº 6) , Montijo , air transport base with the Esquadras 501 (C-130), 502 (C-295) and 504 (Falcon) as well as the Esquadra 751 (Merlin), which is mainly concerned with SAR tasks Base is shared by the Navy .
• Base Aérea de Beja (Base Aérea Nº 11) , Beja , training base with the Esquadra 552 (Alouette) as well as the 601 , the latter a deployment relay (P-3); The tactical training command of the (German) Air Force in Portugal was previously located here

In addition, units are stationed on the following Bases Aéreas Avançadas :

• Aeródromo Militar de Lisboa (Aeródromo de Trânsito Nº 1) , Lisbon
• Aeródromo Militar de Ovar (Aeródromo de Manobra Nº 1), Ovar , among other things one of two subsidiary sites of the Military Aviation Museum
• Base Aérea das Lajes (Base Aérea Nº 4) , Lajes in the Azores
• Aeródromo de Manobra nº 3 (AM3) in Porto Santo , Madeira

Another subsidiary site of the Military Aviation Museum is located at the Alverca military airfield ; However, the FAP no longer uses the airport there for flying purposes.

In the meantime no longer active air force bases were u. a. near Ota (Alenquer) and Tancos (Vila Nova da Barquinha)

Incidents

• On July 11, 2016, a C-130H of the Portuguese Air Force (16804) came off the runway to the left and then to the right during takeoff acceleration at the Montijo military airfield , caught fire and fell almost 1,500 meters behind the runway. Three of seven crew members died and four others were injured.

Web links

• Official website of the Portuguese Air Force
• Information about the Portuguese Air Force in English at Scramble

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information on the number of soldiers on the website of the Portuguese General Staff , accessed on May 10, 2017
2. ↑ World Air Forces 2013 ( English , PDF; 4.0 MB) In: Flightglobal Insight . 2013. Archived from the original on December 16, 2012. Retrieved on April 12, 2013.
3. ↑ So that others can live , Rotorblatt , Dirk Jan de Ridder & Menso van Westrhenen, 4/2010.
4. ↑ Accident report C-130H PAF 16804 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 17, 2020.
5. ↑ Porque terá este C-130 saído da pista à descolagem? . expresso.sapo.pt. Retrieved July 18, 2016 (Portuguese).
6. ↑ Lockheed C-130 Hercules plane crashes at Portugal military base killing three , Mirror, July 11, 2016