🇵🇹 Daily Portugal news for expats & investors — FREE Subscribe
Sign in Subscribe

Defence

Lockheed Martin Signals Openness to F-35 Component Production Across 16 Portuguese Industrial Projects and 21 Beneficiaries on Thursday 14 May — Letter of Request Stays the Gating Step Toward a €5.5 Billion, 27-Aircraft Air Force Renewal

Lockheed Martin Signals Openness to F-35 Component Production Across 16 Portuguese Industrial Projects and 21 Beneficiaries on Thursday 14 May — Letter of Request Stays the Gating Step Toward a €5.5 Billion, 27-Aircraft Air Force Renewal

Lockheed Martin tells ECO on Thursday 14 May that 16 candidate industrial projects, 21 Portuguese beneficiaries and 5 universities sit inside the F-35 engagement architecture. Letter of Request from Lisbon is still the gating procedural step toward a €5.5 billion, 27-aircraft Air Force renewal.
The Portugal Brief
Rangel Contradicts Marco Rubio's Fox News 'Said Yes Before We Asked' Praise on Lajes for Operação Fúria Épica — MNE Says Pedido Landed After the 28 February Iran Strikes, PS Calls It 'Humilhação à Escala Planetária' and PCP Files CPI on Friday 15 May

Rangel Contradicts Marco Rubio's Fox News 'Said Yes Before We Asked' Praise on Lajes for Operação Fúria Épica — MNE Says Pedido Landed After the 28 February Iran Strikes, PS Calls It 'Humilhação à Escala Planetária' and PCP Files CPI on Friday 15 May

Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel rejects Marco Rubio's Fox News claim that Portugal 'said yes before we even asked' on Lajes for Operação Fúria Épica. MNE says the formal pedido for equipment transit, including MQ-9 Reapers, only arrived after the 28 February strikes on Iran began.
The Portugal Brief
Bolieiro Walks the Açores Into the First Conferência de Regiões in Ponta Delgada on 12 May Asking for More US and NATO Troops at Lajes — Regional President Pitches the Atlantic Archipelago as a Submarine-Cable and Data-Centre Hub for the Alliance

Bolieiro Walks the Açores Into the First Conferência de Regiões in Ponta Delgada on 12 May Asking for More US and NATO Troops at Lajes — Regional President Pitches the Atlantic Archipelago as a Submarine-Cable and Data-Centre Hub for the Alliance

The president of the Açores regional government, José Manuel Bolieiro, walked into the first Conferência de Regiões in Ponta Delgada on Monday 12 May 2026 and answered the obvious question that has hung over the Lajes file since the United States...
The Portugal Brief
Nuno Melo Walks Into the Brussels Defence Ministers Meeting on Tuesday 12 May Saying He Is 'Tendentially Against' a European Army — Portugal Lines Up With the NATO-Pillar Camp Against the Spanish Push for an EU Force

Nuno Melo Walks Into the Brussels Defence Ministers Meeting on Tuesday 12 May Saying He Is 'Tendentially Against' a European Army — Portugal Lines Up With the NATO-Pillar Camp Against the Spanish Push for an EU Force

Defence Minister Nuno Melo told reporters at the EU defence ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday 12 May 2026 that he is 'tendentially against' a European army, lining Portugal up behind a strengthened NATO European pillar instead of the Spanish push for an autonomous EU force.
The Portugal Brief
Portugal's F-16AM Detachment in Estonia Tops Ten Russian Intercepts in Five Weeks — Tuesday's Latest Alpha Scramble From Ämari Air Base Reframes the NATO 1.18%-of-GDP Argument as Berlin Pushes Lisbon Toward 2% by 2029 and 5% by 2035

Portugal's F-16AM Detachment in Estonia Tops Ten Russian Intercepts in Five Weeks — Tuesday's Latest Alpha Scramble From Ämari Air Base Reframes the NATO 1.18%-of-GDP Argument as Berlin Pushes Lisbon Toward 2% by 2029 and 5% by 2035

Two F-16AM Fighting Falcons from Portugal's Air Force detachment at Ämari Air Base in Estonia scrambled on Tuesday to intercept Russian aircraft — the roughly tenth Alpha Scramble since the four-month NATO eAP rotation began on 1 April with four jets and 95 personnel.
The Portugal Brief