Portuguese Armed Forces

Portuguese Armed Forces Forças Armadas
Portuguese military colors
Founded	12th century
Current form	1950
Service branches	Portuguese Army Portuguese Navy Portuguese Air Force
Headquarters	EMGFA
Leadership
Supreme Commander	Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
Minister of National Defense	Azeredo Lopes
Chief of the General Staff	Artur Pina Monteiro
Manpower
Available for military service	2,566,264 males, age 18–35 (2010), 2,458,297 females, age 18–35 (2010)
Fit for military service	2,103,080 males, age 18–35 (2010), 2,018,004 females, age 18–35 (2010)
Reaching military age annually	62,208 males (2010), 54,786 females (2010)
Active personnel	32,992 (88% males, 12% females) (2016)
Deployed personnel	600
Expenditures
Budget	€2.1 billion (2014)
Percent of GDP	1.1% (2014)
Related articles
History	Military history of Portugal
Ranks	Military ranks of Portugal

The Portuguese Armed Forces (Portuguese: Forças Armadas) are the military of Portugal. They include the General staff of the Armed Forces, the other unified bodies and the three service branches: the Portuguese Navy, the Portuguese Army and the Portuguese Air Force.

The President of the Republic is the head of the Portuguese military, with the title of "Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces" (Comandante Supremo das Forças Armadas). The management of the Armed Forces and the execution of the national defense policy is however done by the government via its Minister of National Defense. The highest-ranking officer in the military is the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, which has operational control of the armed forces during peacetime and assumes their full control when a state of war exists.

The Armed Forces are charged with protecting Portugal as well as supporting international peacekeeping efforts when mandated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United Nations and/or the European Union.

Portugal was ranked the 5th most peaceful country in the World in the Global Peace Index 2016, presently not having significant national security issues. The Portuguese Armed Forces have been thus focused in non military public service activities and in external military operations. Recent external operations include anti-piracy action in the Gulf of Aden, the conflict in Afghanistan, peacekeeping missions in East-Timor, Lebanon, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and air policing of Iceland and the Baltic States.