The army wants to modernize the Pandur armored vehicles and Leopard II A6 tanks, replace the M113 tracked vehicles, acquire anti-aircraft, anti-tank and mortar artillery systems and find a unique campaign system mounted on wheels, move towards acquiring multi-role helicopters and replenish military reserves. The plan was presented to Defense Minister Nuno Melo on Friday during the Artex 24 exercise devoted to experiments.
According to trained Colonel António Oliveira, head of the planning department, “it is impossible to modernize the entire army at once,” so the concept of the “next generation land force” has a “timeline and priorities,” and given the current Law on Military Programming, which includes 1.2 billion euros, “we are working on 12 opportunities, 100 projects and subprojects.” “We need to speed up modernization,” he warned.
Deputy Army Chief Lieutenant General Maya Pereira stressed that the aim is to “solve the challenges of modern combat” and that “the decisive battle will be on land.” He said that “innovation is a means of attraction and retention,” that defense “is increasingly becoming a technology and a catalyst for other areas,” and called on “national industry, research centers and universities to look at the Army as a world of opportunities.”
Author: Sergio A. Vitorino
Source: CM Jornal
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