Portuguese Armed Forces

	Portuguese Armed Forces ; Forças Armadas Portuguesas
guide
Commander in Chief :	President of Portugal
Defense Minister:	José Azeredo Lopes
Military strength
Active soldiers:	30,000 (2019)
Conscription:	suspended (2003)
Eligibility for military service:	18th year of life
household
Military budget:	2.928 billion euros (2019)
Share of gross domestic product :	1.41% (2019)
history

The Portuguese Armed Forces ( Portuguese : Forças Armadas Portuguesas ) are subordinate to the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Portugal and consist of the armed forces:

Portuguese Army Exército Português
Portuguese Navy Marinha Portuguesa
Portuguese Air Force Força Aérea Portuguesa
Republican National Guard Guarda Nacional Republicana

The president , who is directly elected every five years in a general election, is the commander in chief of the armed forces.

The general conscription that prevailed until 2003 is suspended. The period of service was:

4–8 months of land forces
4–12 months naval or air force

history

Memorial plaque at Praça dos Templários in Maubisse ( East Timor ) for Portuguese parachutists

As the leading colonial power, Portugal had had a relatively strong army for the size of the country since the Middle Ages, but above all a very strong navy. The general weakness of the country, economic problems (national bankruptcy in 1891) and increasing republican uprisings led to the proclamation of the republic in 1910. In March 1916, the country joined the First World War on the side of the Entente . Portugal mobilized an expeditionary force of up to 100,000 soldiers, of which about 7,000 were killed by the end of the war. During World War II , the country was neutral, although Japan occupied Macau and Portuguese Timor (see Battle of Timor ). Portugal has been a member of NATO since 1949 . From 1960 the colonial war began , which was waged with great severity, especially in Africa ( Angola , Mozambique , Guinea-Bissau ), but not from Portugal despite the deployment of up to 150,000 colonial troops, settler militias, local auxiliary soldiers and South African or South Rhodesian mercenaries could be won. With the Carnation Revolution in 1974, a bloodless military coup ended the decades-long dictatorship of the Estado Novo . After democratic elections in 1975, the military slowly withdrew from politics. Portugal now has a small but relatively modern navy.