page_title: Portuguese Navy
section_title: Early Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: Portuguese Navy / History / Early Cold War
caption_attribution_description: The Portugese minesweeper NRP Graciosa (M 417) during trials on Lake Michigan (USA) in June 1955. The ship shows the U.S. Navy designation AM-486 (later MSO-486), but was built for Portugal. Graciosa was built at the Burger Boat Company, Manitowoc, Wisconsin (USA). She was commissioned on 15 August 1955 and scrapped in 1973.
context_page_description: The Portuguese Navy is the naval branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in cooperation and integrated with the other branches of the Portuguese military, is charged with the military defense of Portugal.
  On 12 December 2017, the Portuguese Navy commemorated the 700th anniversary of its official creation by King Denis of Portugal. Tracing its origins back to the 12th century, it is the oldest continuously serving navy in the world.
  The Navy played a key role at the beginning and during the great voyages of the Age of Discoveries in the 15th and 16th centuries. The resulting of this technical and scientific discoveries led Portugal to develop advanced ships, including the caravel, new and more sophisticated types of carracks for interoceanic travel and the oceanic galleon, and to find the sea route to the East and routes to South America and Northern North America.
  Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa and Vasco da Gama reached India, linking Europe and Asia for the first time by ocean route, as well as the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.
context_section_description: After World War II, Portugal was one of the founding nations of NATO. In the scope of the Cold War, the Portuguese fleet actively participated in the defense of the North Atlantic against the Soviet naval threat. Inside NATO, the Portuguese Navy stands out by the development of a high proficiency in the mine and anti-submarine warfares.
  Besides the already existing ships that suffer modernization programs, the Portuguese Navy starts to receive a series of new ships from the late 1940s, including nine frigates, three submarines, 14 patrol ships and 15 mine warfare ships. The Naval Aviation also receives new aircraft, including 24 Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bombers that form an anti-submarine squadron, considered a case study of efficiency among NATO, initially based at the Aveiro Naval Air Station and then transferred to the new Montijo Naval Air Base.
  The roles of Minister of National Defence and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces are created in 1950, uniting the Navy and the Army under a joint command and marking the creation of the Portuguese Armed Forces as an integrated force.
  After an intense debate and the fierce opposition from the naval aviators, in 1952, the Government takes the controversial decision to place the Naval Aviation under the control of the then created independent Portuguese Air Force, as the semi-autonomous Naval Air Forces. The Naval Air Forces would be fully integrated in the Air Force in 1958, definitely ceasing to exist as a separate branch, with many of the naval aviators and other personnel opting to return to the Portuguese Navy.
  In the early 1960s, the Portuguese fleet includes 16 ocean escorts (including destroyers, frigates and sloops), three submarines, 23 patrol vessels, 19 mine warfare vessels (including ocean mine-sweepers, coastal mine-sweepers and mine-hunters), four survey vessels, one tanker, one buoy tender and one training ship.
  From the late 1950s, the Portuguese Government and Military begin to concern about the increasing external and internal threats against the overseas territories of Portugal and the consequent need to defend them, including with adequate naval forces. Besides, the "European" navy equipped mainly with anti-submarine frigates, submarines and mine warfare vessels to operate in the North Atlantic in the scope of NATO, a new "Overseas" navy starts to be planned. Initially, the planned Overseas navy is conceived as mobile intervention force, centered in light aircraft carriers carrying Marine assault forces. However, this concept is not considered the most adequate and soon evolves to a concept of force centered in frigates and corvettes capable of carrying and supporting small landing forces, as well as in patrol ships. The beginning of the separatist guerrillas in the early 1960s and the consequent need of operating in the rivers and lakes of the Portuguese Africa would force the evolution of the Overseas navy concept, with the creation of brown-water forces, equipped with a high number of small patrol and landing craft.
  In parallel to developing its fleet, the Portuguese Navy starts to expand its worldwide capacity of command, control and logistics in order to cover all Portuguese Overseas territories and respective waters. From 1957, naval commands are created in Cape Verde, in Angola, in Mozambique and in Goa (Portuguese India), besides those established in the Continent and in the Azores. Each naval command is responsible for an oceanic area of operations, in a way that most of the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean are contiguously covered by Portuguese oceanic areas. Subordinated to the naval commands, a number of local maritime defense commands and naval support facilities are also created. The Portuguese Navy also develops a worldwide communications network, with naval radio stations being established in all Portuguese Overseas territories. This network takes the Navy to be given the fully responsibility for providing the long range inter-territorial radio communications service to all branches of the Portuguese Arme
caption: The minesweeper NRP Graciosa, in trials, just before being delivered to the Portuguese Navy in 1955
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