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

Defence

PSD and CDS-PP Pitch a 'Defender Portugal' Civic-Military Programme to Hand 18-23-Year-Olds €439.21 and a Free Driving Licence — A 3-to-6 Week Internato Aimed at the Forças Armadas' 24,500-Active-Personnel Recruitment Crisis

PSD and CDS-PP Pitch a 'Defender Portugal' Civic-Military Programme to Hand 18-23-Year-Olds €439.21 and a Free Driving Licence — A 3-to-6 Week Internato Aimed at the Forças Armadas' 24,500-Active-Personnel Recruitment Crisis

AD's parliamentary resolution would create a voluntary three-to-six-week 'Defender Portugal' programme for 18-23-year-olds — €439.21 stipend (50% of basic-instruction first-tier pay), free driving licence in military establishments. Aimed at Portugal's 24,500-active-personnel recruitment crisis.
The Portugal Brief
Vila Nova de Famalicão's Ysium Walks From Leica Optics Into Defence and Aerospace — Hugo Freitas Books a €10 Million-Plus 2026 With Leopard 2 Stabilisers, Sniper-Sight Components and Galileo Satellite Parts From the Ex-Leica Plant

Vila Nova de Famalicão's Ysium Walks From Leica Optics Into Defence and Aerospace — Hugo Freitas Books a €10 Million-Plus 2026 With Leopard 2 Stabilisers, Sniper-Sight Components and Galileo Satellite Parts From the Ex-Leica Plant

Famalicão's Ysium — founded by Hugo Freitas in 2014 with €500,000 capital — has pivoted from Leica optical components to defence and aerospace precision parts. 2026 revenue: €10M+, 70 employees, contracts in the Leopard 2 stabiliser line and the Galileo constellation.
The Portugal Brief
Saab Walks the Portuguese Defence Industrial Pitch Public — €5 Billion Over 20 Years for the Gripen E, OGMA in Final Assembly, Critical Software Building the Simulator and an RBS15 Naval Add-On Sweetener

Saab Walks the Portuguese Defence Industrial Pitch Public — €5 Billion Over 20 Years for the Gripen E, OGMA in Final Assembly, Critical Software Building the Simulator and an RBS15 Naval Add-On Sweetener

Saab walks its Portuguese defence-industrial pitch public: €5 billion over 20 years for the Gripen E, OGMA in Alverca on final-assembly potential, Critical Software on the AI simulator, Thyssenkrupp-Vangest-Kristaltek as suppliers — and the RBS15 anti-ship missile as a Marinha sweetener.
The Portugal Brief
Defence Minister Asks the PGR for a Legal Opinion on the NATO Ammunition Depot at Sesimbra-Seixal — Half a Century of Illegal Construction Inside the Military Servitude Zone, Demolition Orders Pending and Population Relocation on the Table

Defence Minister Asks the PGR for a Legal Opinion on the NATO Ammunition Depot at Sesimbra-Seixal — Half a Century of Illegal Construction Inside the Military Servitude Zone, Demolition Orders Pending and Population Relocation on the Table

Nuno Melo's 2 April letter asks the PGR three questions about the NATO ammunition depot at Sesimbra-Seixal: how to execute pending demolition orders, whether to declare public-utility expropriation, and how to coordinate with the Natura 2000 / REN / ZEC overlay.
The Portugal Brief