Page 230 - Airpower in 20th Century - Doctrines and Employment

230 airpower in 20 Century doCtrines and employment - national experienCes
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In the middle of the decade there were plans for a restructuring of the system of
air forces which included six Fighter Squadrons, two Squadrons of Maritime Patrol
and Antisubmarine Warfare, a Transport and Search and Rescue Squadron, among
other means, within the framework of Euro Atlantic defence and strategic air space
of national interest, all of these Squadrons based in national airfields in the Portu-
guese mainland and insular territory.
It was an ambitious plan which had the approval of the Minister of National
Defence. But as early as 1957 the concerns about the security in the Portuguese
overseas territories began, which led to abandon this plan, or to redirect some of its
aspects to another configuration.
In 1952 the Air Force had a strength of about 2,000 people and eleven squadrons
organized into groups, with the following main types of airpla nes, among other less
significant: Hurricane, F-47 Thunderbolt, Spitfire, Junkers JU-52, Lysander, B-17,
C-54, Curtiss Helldiver, T-6, Grumman, in a total of 375 aircraft, including in this
inventory the resources that had come from the previous Military Aeronautical Serv-
ice and Naval Aviation belonging to the Portuguese Army and Portuguese Navy,
respectively.
In the meantime Portuguese Air Force received two Squadrons of F-84G aircrafts
under the “Mutual Defence Assistance Agreement “ established with the United
States of America following the end of World War II, and this reception was a very
important technological and operational milestone.
In 1959 the effective staff reaches the number of about 7,500 people, after the in-
troduction of the fleet of F-86F integrated in two Squadrons, in 1958, under the same
agreement, which gives an idea of the expansion that mean while took place.

Preparing for war

Given the international environment in general and to the Bandung Conference
of 1955 in particular, a sense of fear of some instability in the overseas Portuguese
territories began to grow.
Portugal, who had fought some forty years before with the sacrifice of many
lives, to maintain sovereignty over those territories, enforcing its historical rights,
facing up to the other European powers, did not feel threatened, in principle, by
these tendencies. In the face of attacks that were directed to it at international assem-
blies, Portugal responded with the arguments of the specific political organization
of those territories, which according to the Portuguese Constitution were considered
as Portuguese provinces, and of the existence of a multi-continental and multi-racial
Portuguese community. “The winds of history” were however merciless in the denial
of these arguments and led the country to a relative political isolation.
However, given the international environment of those times in which the con-
stitution and support of independence movements was fomented, and on the other
hand the official Portuguese position, the conflict became inevitable and a break in