page_title: Portuguese Army
section_title: Post Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: Portuguese Army / History / Post Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: During exercise Iberian Resolve, Portuguese soldiers from the 2nd Armored Division use Chaimite V200 Armored Personnel Carriers to steer their way through the impact target area on the Glamoc live-fire range in western Bosnia. On this day for more than an hour, the Portuguese soldiers worked in conjunction with a pair of U.S. Army OH-58D helicopters to engage a series of large rectangular targets on a far hillside using Milan anti-tank missiles, Browning 50 cal machine guns, and shoulder mounted sniper rifles. The objective of exercise Iberian Resolve is to integrate Multinational Division OPRES Ground forces from the Portuguese 2nd Armored Division and OPRES Air Forces from the U.S. Army's 1-25 Aviation into a combined live fire exercise. Location: CAMP BUTMIR.
context_page_description: The Portuguese Army is the land component of the Armed Forces of Portugal and is also its largest branch. It is charged with the defence of Portugal, in co-operation with other branches of the Armed Forces. With its origins going back to the 12th century, it can be considered as one of the oldest armies in the world.
  The Portuguese Army is commanded by the Chief of Staff of the Army, a subordinate of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces for the operational matters and a direct subordinate of the Ministry of National Defense for all other matters. The CEME is the only officer in the Army with the rank of General.
  Presently, the Portuguese Army is an entirely professional force made of career personnel and of volunteer personnel. Until the early 1990s, conscripts constituted the bulk of the Army personnel, with a cadre of career officers and NCOs responsible for their training. Conscription was however gradually reduced since the middle 1990s, until being finally formally abolished in 2004.
  As 2014, the Portuguese Army employed 5,667 career personnel and 10,444 volunteers, this representing a total of 16,111 military personnel.
context_section_description: The end of the Cold War and the consequent reduction of the threat of a conventional warfare in Europe brought the refocus of the Portuguese Army. From the beginning of the 1990s, the Army started a process of deep transformation, evolving from a mainly conscript army organized as skeleton structure oriented to support the raising of operational units through mobilization to a much smaller professional army organized with permanent operational units. This change implied a rationalization of the forces that included the deep reduction of personnel, the disbandment of a number of regiments and bodies (including the Commando Regiment) and the transference of the Parachute Troops from the Air Force to the Army.
  The involvement of Portugal in a series of multinational and even national peace operations in foreign countries led the Army to become again a mainly expeditionary oriented force. Since the end of the 20th century, the Portuguese Army participated with national deployed forces in numerous foreign operations, including in Angola, Mozambique, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, East Timor, Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
  As part of the Army transformation, it was re-organized in 1993. The division of the territory in military regions and zones was kept, with the reduction of the number of regions, but with the raising of the Airborne Troops Command (using the structure of the previous Air Force's Paratroopers Command) and the Santa Margarida Military Camp as two special territorial commands. The regiments of the Army became again designed by numbers and not anymore by the place where they were based. The assigned numbers were not consecutive, as in previous organizations, but were the historical numbers previously used by each unit or by its predecessor in the same garrison place. The old 1950's plans to equip the Army with light aviation assets were resumed, with the raising of a Light Aviation Unit that was intended to operate helicopters. However, the reception of the planned helicopters was delayed successively until being finally canceled and the unit disbanded. The military regions and zones continued to be responsible for keeping territorial defense brigades and battle groups, mostly maintained only in cadre strength in time of peace. The Army now would have an increased permanent operational force with three brigades: the Independent Airborne Brigade (BAI), the Independent Mechanized Brigade (BMI) and the Light Intervention Brigade (BLI). The BAI resulted from the old Air Force's Light Paratrooper Brigade, also absorbing the parachute qualified members of the disbanded Commando Regiment. The BMI resulted from the fully mechanization of the previous 1st Composite Brigade. The BLI would be a completely newly raised motorized infantry brigade, although inheriting part of the disbanded Special Forces Brigade. Operationally, each of the three brigades had a similar organization that included three maneuver (infantry / armoured) and one field artillery battalion, engineering, signals and services companies, an armored reconnaissance squadron and an anti-aircraft battery. Administratively however each of the brigades had completely different organizations, with the BAI being entirely maintained by the Airborne Troops Command in several of its regiments and other units spread across the country, with the BMI being entirely maintained by the Santa Margarida Military Camp concentrated in a single place and with the BLI being maintained by the several military regions in their several regiments spread across the country.
  In the new organization implemented in 2006, the military regions, the Airborne Troops Command and the Santa Margarida Military Camp command would be finally disbanded. This implied the completely disbandment of the territorial defense brigades. The Azores and Madeira military zones were however maintained, being responsible for the command of the garrison and territorial defense forces stationed in their respective isles. The three operational brigades - respectively renamed Rapid Reaction Brigade (BriRR), Me
caption: Portuguese Army Chaimite V200 armoured vehicles in western Bosnia, 2002
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