OCCAR (Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation) has announced Portugal as its latest participating state following high-level meetings with representatives of the Portuguese Armed Forces and Ministry of Defense on the 5th and 6th of March1.
Portugal becomes the 11th participating state of the European organization, which also has 6 member states and 4 observer states.
Portugal will immediately join 3 OCCAR programs, the BOXER 8×8 modular vehicle family, the FREMM multi-mission frigates, and the FSAF PAAMS air and missile defence system.
The procurement of these equipment’s and munitions will be under the European Union’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative, under which Portugal received roughly 5.8 billion euros to modernize its Armed Forces.
As of the time of writing there are still no contracts under these 3 programs (and in fact for any SAFE-procured project) but some details on them have recently been coming into light.
On the Boxer front the Portuguese Army is expected to procure a total of 90 vehicles2, with an expected cost of around 1.3 billion euros3.
The Boxer is replacing the M113, a vehicle in service since July of 1976 when the first 20 M113A1s arrived. The majority of the 90 Boxer vehicles will likely be going for the Heavy Infantry Battalion of the Mechanized Brigade, under the Army’s 2045 plan this will be Mechanized Battalion (-) for the future NATO-oriented Medium Brigade, to be created in 2032.
As for the FREMM frigate program, the Portuguese Navy will procure 3 FREMM EVO frigates from Fincantieri for a currently estimated cost of around 3 billion euros4.
This major and historic investment in the Navy surface combatants’ fleets will for the first time in over 30 years allow the Navy to introduce in service new frigates, currently in service are 5 ageing ships, 3 Vasco da Gama class, and 2 Bartolomeu Dias class.
The joining of FSAF PAAMS air and missile defence system program is in direct correlation with the FREMM program, as the frigate’s primary air defence munition is the Aster missile. Portuguese frigates are currently only equipped with the RIM-7M missile for air defense, the 16 ESSM Block 2 missiles procured in 2020 for the Bartolomeu Dias class frigates are yet to be delivered.
Sources:
1: https://www.occar.int/news/occarea-director-officially-welcomes-portugal-into-the-occar-community
2: https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/landwarfareintl/portugal-set-to-join-boxer-team/
4: https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/portugal-escolhe-fragatas-italianas-fremm-evo-para-reforar-a-marinha