e there were 10,300 (3,000 conscripts). And in the reserves the personnel for all services was of 190,000. The major units for the Army are six territorial commands with one composite brigade, three infantry brigades, and one special forces brigade. The navy had three commands one in the mainland, one in the Azores, and the other in Madeira. It also had 2,500 marines organized into three battalions two infantry and one police. The air force has the operational command of eighteen squadrons, including three attack squadrons. The military equipment Portugal owned in 1992 was as following. The army had about 130 tanks, 250 armored personnel carriers, and variety of other combat vehicles. It also as 300 pieces of towed artillery. Forty-eight TOW (tube-launded, optically tracked, wire-guided) missiles, forty-five Milan wire guided missiles, and seventeen SAM (surface-to-air) missiles and also 240 recoilless launchers. The navy has three submarines, eleven frigates (including three MIKO 200s), and twenty-nine patrol and coastal boats. The air force has ten Alpha Jets, about seventy A-7 and A-7P Corsairs, and six Lockheed P-3B Orion maritime reconnaissance aircraft. Major transport aircraft include six C130H Hercules and fifty-two CASA C-212 planes of various types. The military budget in 1991 was US$2.458 billion. Portugal is a member in several foreign military treaties. Portugal is a founding member of NATO. It also let’s the United States use Lajes Air Base on Terceira Island in Azores.Portugal’s internal security forces consist of the National Republican Guard (Guarda Nacional Republicana--GNR), they are a heavily armed paramilitary constabulary. That in 1990 consisted of about 19,000 personnel organized into battalions in major cities and companies in district capitals. They are equipped with Commando armored cars and Alouette II helicopters, it’s available to quell demonstrations and labor unrest. The public security...
