Portugal is ready to send its troops to Ukraine as part of a stabilization mission, as announced by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro following an emergency EU leaders' summit held on March 6, 2025, in Brussels.
The was reported by Polska Agencia Presowa. Against this background, the question arises as to what ground forces and aviation Portugal has, which previously provided three Leopard 2A6 tanks, 60 M113 tracked armored personnel carriers and other equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of military aid.
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According to The Military Balance 2024, the Portuguese ground forces are organized into two mechanized and one airmobile brigades, and have one infantry group each on the Azores and Madeira Islands.
In addition to 13,500 regular military personnel, the Portuguese Army has as many as 210,000 reservists. Portugal is currently not very active in missions to deploy its troops abroad. There are 219 soldiers in the Central African Republic and 235 soldiers in Romania.
The list of available equipment and weapons is as follows: 34 Leopard 2A6 tanks, 30 Pandur II wheeled armoured personnel carriers with 30-mm cannons, 238 M113 armored personnel carriers and 146 Pandur II wheeled armoured fighting vehicles of various variants.
As for artillery, Portugal has 18 M109A5 self-propelled howitzers, 24 M114A1 towed howitzers, 17 105-mm L119 towed howitzers (six M109A5 and 21 M101 105-mm howitzers in storage), 234 mortars of 81 mm, 107 mm and 120 mm caliber. Army air defense: an unspecified number of Stinger MANPADS and 20 units of 20mm Rh 202 autocannon.
As for aviation, it is worth noting that Portugal is part of the "aviation coalition" that supports the transition of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to Western-style aircraft, particularly the F-16. However, the Portuguese could not provide the F-16 because of the small number of aircraft of this type available - 24 single-seat F-16AMs and four two-seat F-16BMs. This is the entire Portuguese combat aviation.
The Portuguese Air Force also has five P-3C Orion patrol aircraft and five C295Ms in the reconnaissance variant, eight C-130H transport aircraft of various variants, five C295M light transporters and one Brazilian-made KC-390 Millenium.
Earlier Defense Express reported that the French Mirage 2000 jets had helped to repel russian air attack on Ukraine for the first time.
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