In the 2002 legislative elections, the CDS-PP won 8.7 percent of the vote and 14 Parliament seats, which were sufficient to form a government majority with the PSD that won the election. The CDS-PP participated in two coalition governments from April 2002 to March 2005 and Portas served as Minister of State and National Defence in the first (Durão Barroso) and Minister of State, National Defence and Sea Affairs in the second (Pedro Santana Lopes). As Minister of Defence, he presided over important reforms of the military, such as abolishing conscription, but his most lasting legacy was the upgrade of military equipment in the context of the 2003 "Military Programming Law" that envisaged a major boost in military equipment spending to 5,341 million euros, including two submarines and 260 combat vehicles that would become the subject of much controversy after he left office. As Minister of Defense, Paulo Portas was also determinant in aligning Portugal with George W. Bush's 2003 Iraq invasion by saying he had personally "seen irrefutable evidence of weapons of mass destruction" while on an official visit to Washington. He was subsequently awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service by the USA's Defense Department.