Local social democrat politicians Mendes Bota and Elsa Cordeiro have questioned the Government on its intention to close the army barracks in Tavira and demanded that the Algarve has at least some army presence.
The MPs were concerned with a possible lack of any soldiers in the south of the country and questioned the Ministry of Defence on its intention of closing the barracks which would leave the entire south of the country being "devoid of a permanent military force."
According to the MPs, the Quartel da Atalaia military site currently houses Infantry Regiment No. 1 which recently has been playing "a strategic role" in the field of surveillance, forest fire-fighting and other more covert activities.
Tavira’s first permanent garrison was established in 1640 by for a detachment of one of the two Algarve regiments. Infantry Regiment No. 1 was transferred to the Quartel da Atalaia in Tavira on April 1, 2008, after the barracks had been unused for several years.
The construction of the current barracks started in 1795, by royal command, and has been occupied by soldiers ever since.
As budgetary cut-backs bite deep into military spending, one of the more ludicrous consequences became clear last week.
Two F-16s from Portugal’s Air Force were sent to intercept two Russian aircraft in an area 100 miles west of Peniche, an area in which the Russians should not have been flying.
The F-16s were scrambled from Monte Real Air Base in Leiria as the Russians clearly were within NATO-controlled European airspace.
According to a NATO spokesman, "This Russian flight represented a potential threat to civil aviation in that the Russians often have not warned us of their flight plans, nor have they any transponders on board. This means that the air traffic controllers cannot detect the presence of these military airplanes so as to check they are not going to interfere with civilian aircraft. "
This was the second such Russian incursion last week but last Friday’s scramble came to a comical end as the two F-16s did not have full tanks of fuel and had to turn back before they could make contact with the Russian pilots of the Tupolev-95s.
A third F-16 was topped up with fuel and sent off to see what the Russian bombers were up to.
Official reactions to the lack of fuel have been zero with ministerial comments restricted to 'what a good job was done by all, the Portuguese Air Force is ready for anything.'
The Defence Minister Águiar Branco said that the system is working well, in that the F-16s got airborne in response to an incursion but would not be drawn on their lack of readiness for anything more than a quick trip around the bay.
Comments
The Atalaia Barracks is a building of outstanding historical interest. Let us hope that the authorities find a dignified use for it.
Once again our Ed. has cut through the Ministry of Defence waffle and helped explain the curious TV features that talked up the brave pilots actions in taking off ... but then using YouTube footage lifted from the Internet that had been filmed within the Russian bombers. One shot looking through a porthole at another bomber.
NATO pilots are supposed to fly close enough to the Russians to wave to them but without this explanation of a lack of fuel it looked like our brave Portuguese aviators had gone far beyond standard practice and somehow landed in or on these monster bombers.
That would have shaken up the Russians and kept them out of Portuguese airspace for sometime. Until they could devise tactics to stop these devilishly clever and brave Iberians - flying into the Russian bomb bays.