Gazela, Leopardo and Pantera: The history of the familiy of Portuguese military trucks (2)

The June issue of the Portuguese magazine Motor Clássico brings the second part of the work covering the history of the Portuguese family of military trucks. This family of vehicles, developed by the same company which produced the Chaimite armoured vehicle, included the Gazela, Leopardo and Pantera trucks.

This second part covers the operation of the Gazela and Leopardo in the Portuguese Army, the adaptation of some vehicles for fireman corporations or the heavy Pantera truck. Besides, this article includes an one-page summary with new findings about the history of the Chaimite Portuguese-built armoured vehicle. Those include, for example, the interest of Brazil on the vehicle and tests in this country, the operational deployment in Africa with Portuguese forces and the operation by Lebanon with updated information of the recent modernization of the local fleet.

Pedro Monteiro

EHM: The Portuguese Naval Aviation

The May issue of the Spanish magazine Fuerzas Militares del Mundo published a new article focusing the Esquadrilha de Helicópteros da Marinha (EHM, Navy Helicopter Squadron).

This new work brings updated information about the EHM, namely the future of the fleet, new detachments for the new Bartolomeu Dias frigates or the recent deployment with the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) which is conducting an anti-piracy naval operation off the coast of Somalia. Moreover, it covers technical aspects such as the new equipments and weapons systems for the Super Lynx fleet.

MAGAZINE DISTRIBUTED IN: Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Chile, Peru and USA.

Pedro Monteiro

Report: Portuguese Navy receives its first Karel Dorman frigate

The Brazilian defence website Defesa Net has published a report about the arrival to Lisbon of the first of the two frigates from the Karel Dorman class acquired by Portugal to The Netherlands in 2006 in a EUR260 million deal. The ship named Bartolomeu Dias has similar capabilities to the Vasco da Gama class (Meko 200PN) currently in service and it will replace the frigates from the former João Belo class, which was sold to Uuruguay (check here the previous article). The second ship, renamed Francisco de Almeida (F334), will be transferred on November of 2009.
The Karel Doorman class is composed by eight 2,800t multi-purpose frigates, originally operated by the Royal Netherlands Navy. Today the eight ships built during the 1990s are operated by The Netherlands, Belgium, Chile and Portugal.

Bartolomeu Dias multi-purpose frigate (F333) has arrived to the Portuguese capital this Thursday, April 30th, after months of sea trials and crew trainning (Photo: Portuguese Navy).

You can check the full report in Portuguese on the following link:
http://www.defesanet.com.br/nato/pt_fragatas.htm

Pedro Monteiro