page_title: Portuguese Armed Forces
section_title: Democratic Republic
hierarchical_section_title: Portuguese Armed Forces / History / Democratic Republic
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Collectie / Archief&#160;: Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie&#160;: Demonstratie in Lissabon, Portugal, verhinderd door militairen Beschrijving&#160;: Ondanks een verbod wilden leden van de Portugese Maoïstische beweging MRPP op 31 januari een betoging houden. Militairen verhinderden dat de demonstranten door de stad trokken. Bewapende militairen in gevechtskleding houden de demonstranten tegen Annotatie&#160;: Locatie: Rossio, Largo de Sao Domingos Datum&#160;: 2 februari 1975 Locatie&#160;: Lissabon, Portugal Trefwoorden&#160;: demonstraties, militairen Fotograaf&#160;: Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo Auteursrechthebbende&#160;: Nationaal Archief Materiaalsoort&#160;: Negatief (zwart/wit) Nummer archiefinventaris&#160;: bekijk toegang 2.24.01.05 Bestanddeelnummer&#160;: 927-7282
context_page_description: The Portuguese Armed Forces are the military of Portugal. They include the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the other unified bodies and the three service branches: Portuguese Navy, Portuguese Army and Portuguese Air Force.
  The President of the Republic is the head of the Portuguese military, with the title of "Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces". The management of the Armed Forces and the execution of the national defense policy is however done by the government via its Minister of National Defense. The highest-ranking officer in the military is the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, which has operational control of the Armed Forces during peacetime and assumes their full control when a state of war exists.
  The Armed Forces are charged with protecting Portugal as well as supporting international peacekeeping efforts when mandated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United Nations and/or the European Union.
  Portugal was ranked the 3rd most peaceful country in the World in the Global Peace Index 2017, presently not having significant national security issues.
context_section_description: On the morning of 25 April 1974, the Armed Forces Movement (MFA, Movimento das Forças Armadas) – consisting mostly of junior officers of the three service branches – launched a coup d'état, known as the Carnation Revolution, which would bring an end to the New State regime and shortly the Overseas War. While the revolt included several military units located on the mainland, the forces that departed from the Cavalry School located in Santarém, led by captain Salgueiro Maia, were the ones that managed to obtain the surrender of prime-minister Marcelo Caetano after a stand-off at the National Republican Guard headquarters in Lisbon, where he and some other members of the Government had taken refuge.
  However, after the revolution and for about a year and a half, the Portuguese military would become highly politicized and split into several factions. By the summer of 1975, the tension between these was so high, that the country was on the verge of civil war. The forces connected to the extreme left-wing launched a further coup d'état on 25 November but the Group of Nine, a moderate military faction, immediately initiated a counter-coup. The main episode of this confrontation was the successful assault on the barracks of the left-wing dominated Military Police Regiment by the moderate forces of the Commando Regiment, resulting in three soldiers killed in action. The Group of Nine emerged victorious, thus preventing the establishment of a communist state in Portugal and ending the period of political instability in the country.
  The Ministry of National Defense would be created during this period of instability. However this ministry had no power over the Armed Forces, his role was simply to act as a connection between the military and the Government. It was the Revolution Council – created in 1975, consisting only of military officers and chaired by the President of the Republic – that had the full control over the Armed Forces, which meant these were completely independent from the civilian administration. The Government military departments (Navy Ministry, Army Ministry and Secretariat of State of the Aeronautics) were disbanded, with each service branch chief of staff assuming the roles of the former ministers, under the coordination of the CEMGFA, to whom was given a status equivalent to that of the Prime Minister of Portugal. This organization would remain in place until 1982, when the Revolution Council was disbanded after the first revision to the 1976 Constitution. The Armed Forces were again placed under the subordination of the civilian administration, more specifically being integrated in the Ministry of National Defense.
  With the decolonization and the end of the Overseas War, the Portuguese military would change from an asymmetric war oriented force to a conventional war oriented force, focused in defense of Western Europe from a possible Soviet invasion.
  Meanwhile, the 1980s would see the creation of special operations, namely the Army's Special Operations Forces and the Navy's Special Actions Detachment. In 1990, the Air Force would create Combat Rescue teams (Resgate em Combate or RESCOM) for CSAR operations but in 2006 these were extinct and replaced by the Force Protection Unit (Unidade de Protecção da Força or UPF) whose mission is to provide security for the Air Force elements deployed on international missions.
caption: Portuguese military in public order duty during a Maoist demonstration at the Rossio Square, Lisbon, in the troubled period which followed the Carnation Revolution
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