Friday, July 11, 2008

Portuguese Army in analysis

The last edition of the Portuguese magazine Segurança & Defesa (check the website) brings an analysis of the changes that have been occurring in the Portuguese Army. The main focus is the new organic structure of the military branch.

Such work presents and updates some of the data of my previous work for Fuerzas Militares del Mundo - published in November and December of 2007.

Pedro Monteiro

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Coimbra Airshow 2008

Here are some photographs that I have taken during the weekend on another edition of the Coimbra Airshow (report of the 2007 edition)

Despite the reduced presence of the Portuguese Air Force due to participation of its acrobatic teams in the Air Force Day (Azores) and Royal International Air Tatoo (United Kingdom), the airshow had the presence of several civilian aircraft, such as the Smoke Wings acrobatic Team or the aircrafts from the Aerofénix.

A classical and impressive Boeing-Stearman N62TS from the Aerofénix museum [click to enlarge].

The take-off of another aircraft from museum: in this case, one Havilland CT-120 Chipmunk [click to enlarge].

One of the few military aicraft present was this Dornier Do-27 of the Air Force museum [click to enlarge].

Pedro Monteiro

Air spotting in Monte Real

Last week I have made a spotting session in the air base of Monte Real, where the Portuguese F-16 fleet is based. In the photos is possible to identify both F-16 OCU from the 201 Sqn. "Falcões" and F-16 MLU from the 301 Sqn. "Jaguares".

This spotting session follows a report, made in last March, about the F-16 fleet along with my Juan Carlos Pando (you can check his website here)

One of the most modern fighters from the fleet is this F-16BM in the M5 configuration. The aircraft belongs to the 301 Sqn. "Jaguares" which operates all the MLU fleet [click to enlarge].

The end of an afternoon mission for a F-16BM from the 301 Sqn. "Jaguares" [click to enlarge].

A low pass of a F-16A OCU from the 201 Sqn. "Falcões" with a low-viz scheme [click to enlarge].

Pedro Monteiro