Special operations in the Portuguese Army

Lamego, a city in the North region of Portugal, it is the home of the special operations of the Portuguese Army. Their formation and operational activity occurs in the Centro de Tropas de Operações Especiais (Center of Special Operations Troops), a military unit which was created in 1960. Since 2006, this unit is part of the new Brigada de Reacção Rápida (Quick Reaction Brigade).

Troops from the Centro de Tropas de Operações Especiais during a train in Penude, last October 4th [click to enlarge].

I visited Lamego last friday, October 4th, in order to collect data and photographs for an article for the Spanish magazine Fuerzas Militares del Mundo.

Pedro Monteiro

New article about the portuguese Pandur II programme

The brazilian web site Defesa Net, dedicated to defence news, published a brief article about the portuguese Pandur II programme. This article does, on the one hand, a review of the production of the Steyr's armoured vehicle in Barreiro and, on the other hand, a brief description of the characteristics portuguese vehicles. In fact, several photographs and data of it were obtained during the ceremony of last September 25th, when the first vehicle produced in Portugal was presented (see the report published on this page).

A vertical photograph showing a frontal view of a portuguese Pandur II, in this case, the first one assembled in Barreiro [click to enlarge].

The full article, avaible only in portuguese, can be consulted here:

http://www.defesanet.com.br/afv1/pt_pandur.htm

Pedro Monteiro