{"id":1114393,"date":"2026-07-27T15:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T15:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1114393\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T15:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T15:36:22","slug":"army-beefs-up-force-in-nato-eastern-europe-flank-on-security-grounds-portugal-resident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1114393\/","title":{"rendered":"Army beefs up force in NATO eastern Europe flank, on security grounds \u2013 Portugal Resident"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Portuguese army has increased the number of personnel deployed to Slovakia under NATO<\/strong> to 156, with the Chief of the General Staff justifying this increase today on security grounds, stating that \u201cconventional warfare has returned to Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver a two-year period, we have gone from 30 to around 160 military personnel, which demonstrates, on the one hand, Portugal\u2019s commitment to NATO and, on the other, that the increase in personnel allows us to raise our force objectives \u201c said the Chief of the Army General Staff (CEME), General Eduardo Mendes Ferr\u00e3o, in comments to Lusa.<\/p>\n

He was speaking after the ceremony to present the National Standard to the 5th National Detached Force (5FND)<\/strong>, held at the Santa Margarida Military Camp in Const\u00e2ncia, in the region of Santar\u00e9m, prior to their deployment to Slovakia, where they will join the Spanish-led Multinational Battlegroup as part of NATO\u2019s enhanced surveillance activities.<\/p>\n

Comprising 156 personnel, the force represents a reinforcement compared to previous rotations, now including an additional rifle platoon, an Army Police module<\/strong> and, from October, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and Forward Observer modules.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to General Eduardo Mendes Ferr\u00e3o, this detachment \u201creflects an evolution within this new paradigm\u201d, manifested in the reinforcement of the contingent and the integration of new combat support capabilities to respond to a scenario of high-intensity conventional warfare.<\/p>\n

The contingent operates with five Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks, 15 Pandur II 8\u00d78 armoured vehicles and four VAMTAC ST5 tactical armoured vehicles<\/strong>, whilealso maintaining geospatial intelligence capabilities and unmanned aerial systems in theatre<\/strong>, including the operational testing of equipment developed by Portuguese industry<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to the general, international missions also provide an opportunity to accelerate the modernisation of the Army, enabling the validation of new technologies, tactics and procedures, which are subsequently incorporated into the training, doctrine and re-equipment of the land forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we see real technical, tactical and technological progress is when we deploy [the forces],\u201d he stated, arguing that the lessons learnt in operations contribute to the transformation of the Army.<\/p>\n

In his speech, the CEME also argued that training of forces must be seen as a process of continuous adaptation, enabling the rapid incorporation of lessons learnt from current theatres of operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cConventional combat has returned to Europe. High-intensity, large-scale combat is no longer a distant concept. It is a reality we observe on a daily basis,\u201d he said, maintaining that the new security context demands greater readiness and preparedness from the forces.<\/p>\n

Mendes Ferr\u00e3o also emphasised that, since 2014, the Army has been progressively strengthening Portugal\u2019s participation in international deterrence and collective defence missions, noting that this trajectory demonstrates that Portugal is \u201ca participatory, active and reliable ally\u201d, prepared to carry out \u201cthe most demanding missions\u201d.<\/p>\n

In this context, he argued that Portugal\u2019s participation on Europe\u2019s eastern flank also constitutes a direct contribution to national security.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy contributing to the security of NATO\u2019s eastern flank, we are also contributing to Portugal\u2019s security<\/strong>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the reinforced presence in Slovakia, the Army maintains forces deployed in Romania, also within the framework of NATO, and in the Central African Republic, which is part of a United Nations mission.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese force has been included in the Multinational Battlegroup in Slovakia since 2022, one of the battlegroups created by NATO to strengthen its forward presence, deterrence and collective defence on the Alliance\u2019s eastern flank following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

source: LUSA\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Portuguese army has increased the number of personnel deployed to Slovakia under NATO to 156, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1114394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[17542,2000,299,5187,2821],"class_list":["post-1114393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-armed-forces","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-nato"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116992684225655956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1114393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1114394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}