Tankograd Missions & Manouevres 7022 - Vehicles of the Modern Portuguese Army

Bravia Chaimite: The history of the first Portuguese-built armoured vehicle

A new article about the Chaimite armoured vehicle has been published, this time by Tankograd Militärfahrzeug, a leading publication in the area of military vehicles.

The article, fully published both in English and German, offers a comphreensive narrative of the history of the development, production and operation of this Portuguese-built vehicle which has been in operation for over almost forty years with Portuguese and foreign military and security forces. It also presents new developments and inedit photographs which complete the previous articles published by Motor Clássico. The magazine can be purchased online here.

How is it? The webpage Armorama reviews it as having "extensive technical and historical information on this seldom seen, but highly successful, Portuguese wheeled armoured vehicles" with "photographs which show the vehicle during development stage, manufacture, on training manoeuvres as well as out in the field in Kosovo in 1996. The more modern photographs are of a very high quality, while some of the older ones are a little rougher, but still useful never the less" (read the full review here).

Pedro Monteiro

Military ceremony at Leiria

As part of the official comemoration of the Army Day, the military branch organizes, which year, a military ceremony at October 21st. This year, Leiria was the place chosen by the military for a ceremony which mobilized more than 1.000 troops. Such event also counted with the presence of the Minister of Defense, Professor Nuno Severiano Teixeira. In hs speech, the Minister underlined the modernization of the military branch in what he considers to be the "first great programme since the April 25th, 1974".

I made a report of the event for the Spanish magazine Fuerzas Militares del Mundo as part of an article about the Portuguese Army which I am writing.

The military ceremony included speechs by the Chief of Staff of the Portuguese Army as well by the Minister of Defence. After it, during a brief encounter with the press, the Chief of Staff of the Portuguese Army declared that his goal for personnel is to reach a total of 24.500 military, inclunding 14.500 foot soldiers [click to enlarge].

A M109 A5 self-propelled howitzer. Its 155mm caliber canon, as well the improvements in communications and data transfers have put the portuguese artillery up to the level of allied forces [click to enlarge].

Pedro Monteiro