The Ministry of Defence has authorised a spend of €700 million to modernise the Armed Forces with almost half of the budget going to the Portuguese-Brazilian partnership, Embraer, for the purchase of KC-390 aircraft.
The aim is for Portugal to play catch-up with NATO allies and nine of a dozen purchase projects already have been signed off by Defence Minister, José Azeredo Lopes, with delivery times stretching to 2026.
Thankfully, five of the purchase contracts will be managed by NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency due to the "need to make the procurement process more agile. The NSPA is an entity with a lot of experience in the area,” said a Ministry of Defence source.
Using NATO's agency to order the stock reduces the ability of politicians, middle-men, leeches, sharks and conmen and the Espírito Santo banking family to handle and receive backhanders, (sorry, 'commissions') as happened when two submarines were ordered from Germany under Defence Minister, Paulo Portas.
In addition to the Embraer purchase of 5 or 6 KC-390 transport aircraft, the modernisation programme involves buying 12 drones (€6 million); 8 missile launchers, 8 missile systems, 2 missiles and 8 armoured transport vehicles (€32 million), 167 light armoured vehicles (€60.8 million); 18,000 light weapons, 1,700 grenade launchers, 47 command and control vehicles, 35 armored vehicles and 12 other vehicles (€13.3 million) and 5 to 7 Light helicopters (€20.5 million).
The shipyards of Viana do Castelo and Embraer, the aeronautics company with a factory in Évora, are two local companies that will benefit from the spend.
Portugal made headlines at the end of June when its stock of military equipment at the storage warehouses at Tancos has shrunk. Slack security was blamed for an arms and explosives theft although there were few, if any, signs of a break in.
