Tag Archives: Corpo de Fuzileiros

Innovative Portuguese Drone Carrier takes to the water

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Damen Shipyards Galati in Romania this week launched the future NRP Dom João II, a Multi-Purpose Vessel (MPV) 10720 series ship for the Portuguese Navy.

The 353-foot, 7,000-ton vessel is designed for minimal manning (48 full-time crew) and can conduct everything from scientific research and drone experimentation to humanitarian relief and disaster support.

With a 308×36 foot flight deck and 650m² of hangar space, the vessel can transport and launch unmanned underwater, surface, and aerial vehicles, as well as carry up to 12 TEU containers housing mission-specific modular systems like a Role 2 NATO hospital or ROV equipment.

Dom João can carry a light battalion (300~ men) for brief periods and 10-12 RIBs to land them in a maritime raid force situation, backed up by at least two Agusta-Westland AW101 helicopters and assorted UAVs. The regiment-sized Portuguese Marines are certainly capable of providing such a force. 

Alternatively, Dom João can embark a force of light armor, provided a port is available, with her decks able to stow 18 vehicles, landed on a pier via an onboard 30-ton crane. The country’s army operates a decent quantity of Pandur 8x8s, 90mm-armed Commando V-150s, etc., and could make that happen.

In terms of UAVs, Dom João can also operate as a drone carrier with as many of the bad boys as you can stuff aboard her.

The fixed-wing UAVs are launched via a ski jump. Portuguese Navy image.

The mothership is shown with two notional fixed-wing UAVs on deck (they look like MQ-1C Grey Eagle, but the new MQ-9B STOL may be a better fit) as well as 6 quad-copter UAVs and one NH90 helicopter. The design seems to lack an aviation hangar. Below decks is a modular area to launch and recover AUV, UUV, and USV. Portuguese Navy image.

As noted recently by Jane’s:

The Portuguese Navy has acquired a wide range of unmanned systems in recent years, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) such as UAVision Aeronautics’ Spyro 4N and OGS42N/VN, Beyond Vision’s VTOne and HEIFU Pro, and Autel Robotics’ EVO II Dual 640T Enterprise V2 and EVO Nano; the LSTS’ Seacon-3 unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV); and a shelter-based deployable ground control station.

The €132 million tender for Dom João was signed in 2023 and laid down in October 2024.

She will carry the name of the 15th-century Portuguese King who championed maritime exploration, broadening the work of his great-uncle, Henry the Navigator, and is scheduled for sea trials later this year.

While Dom João has no armament fitted, the MPV could be escorted in operations by the Damen-built former Dutch Karel Doorman-class frigates NRP Bartolomeu Dias (F333, ex-Van Nes) and NRP D. Francisco de Almeida (F334, ex-Van Galen) or the three newer Vasco da Gama (German MEKO 200) class frigates, which do.

Classic Walther Burp Gun Spotted in the Wild

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The Portuguese Navy’s Marine Corps has deployed a 170-strong reinforced company (about a quarter of the service’s strength) to the Baltics. Dubbed the Força de Fuzileiros Lituânia (FFZ LTU) it is on a roughly three-month mission under the auspices of NATO and is the largest deployment of the Corpo de Fuzileiros since Portugal evacuated its African colonies more than 50 years ago. Notably, it includes two UAV elements.

The Portuguese Marines are also sort of old-school, in many ways being stuck in the 1960s-70s when it comes to small arms, still using HK G3 battle rifles, and Walther MP subguns. They only recently retired the P-1 (P-38) pistol in favor of the Glock 17.

Everyone knows the Walther brand, and for good reason. The company makes great guns that are often extremely innovative. The PP/PPK, P-38, P-99, PPQ, PDP, the OSP, and Olympia – the list goes on. However, Walther only made one production submachine gun: the Maschinenpistole, or MP.

Designed in the late 1950s and entering production around 1963, the MP is a blowback action 9mm select-fire SMG with a tubular receiver that fires from an open bolt. It beat the much better-known Heckler & Koch MP5 to production by a few years and was made in two different variations: the MP Lang (Long), or MPL, and the MP Kurz (Short), or MPK.

The difference in size between the two was negligible. The more full-sized MPL ran a 10.2-inch barrel for an overall length of 29.4 inches with the side-folding wire stock extended, whereas the MPK went about 3.5 inches shorter with a 6.8-inch barrel.

Seen at Walther’s in-house museum in Ulm last year…

Although well-made, the MP never really caught on. Its only European customer, besides some German police units as the MP4 (they made several on-camera appearances during the Munich Olympics in 1972), was the Portuguese Navy as seen above

Overseas, it was bought by a few third-world users and the U.S. Army, picked for use by the elite Delta Force commandos in the 1970s and the secretive Detachment A “stay behind” Special Forces unit in West Berlin.

Whereas the MP5 is a bit of a race car that needs special tools for in-depth maintenance, the MP is made simply of metal stampings. For instance, the barrel on the Walther can be swapped out by a user in the field with no tools. Plus, its 550-round cyclic rate, slower than that of the HK, was closer to that used by the M3 Grease Gun and earlier MP38/40, allowing a more familiar learning curve to those already used to those platforms. Little wonder it was adopted by the early U.S. Tier 1 counter-terror operators when Delta Force was first stood up. (Photos: U.S. Army, National Archives, Springfield Armory National Historic Site)

We recently got to shoot one earlier this year and can see why Delta dug it. 

Behold, the MPK

It is ambi and is set up kind of funny. The safety (Sicher=safe) is to the rear of the grip, full-auto (Dauerfeuer= continuous fire) straight down, and semi-auto (Einzelfeuer=single fire ) with the switch rotated forward toward the magazine well. The HK MP5 has a similar S/E/F marked switch for Sicher-Einzelfeuer-Feuerstoss

NATO’s From the Sea Option

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NATO recently released a decent little 10-minute sizzle reel highlighting the alliance’s sea soldiers. It includes Dutch Korps Mariniers and the newly-reformed German Seebataillon Marines in Scotland, the Portuguese Corpo de Fuzileiros on the rivers of Lithuania (still keeping it old school with HK G3 battle rifles and Zodiacs), Royal Marine Commandos training in Norway with their interesting 32-foot ORC (Offshore Raiding Craft) jetboats, and the U.S. Marine Corps, which exercises across the European continent.

So whether you call them Devil Dogs, Bootnecks, Schwarzen Teufel, or Fuzos, odds are, some of your favorite guys who operate from 10 fathoms inward are covered.

And, in a companion piece, the USMC themselves just put out a 10-minute hype video on the future Fleet Marine Force.

Enjoy!

 

Parabéns Fuzileiros!

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One of the oldest marine corps in the world, the Corpo de Fuzileiros of the Marinha Portuguesa, are celebrating 400 years of service this month.

The Fuzileiros date back to 1621, with some arguing they go back even further into the 16th Century.

Formed originally as the Terço da Armada da Coroa de Portugal, today they form two light battalions geared towards force protection and a special forces unit focused on maritime raids.

And are still users of the HK G3 battle rifle! (Marinha Portuguesa)

They have a rich history including centuries of colonial warfare, the Napoleanic wars, WWI, the Cold War– some 14,000 Fuzileiros fought in Portuguese Guinea, Angola, and Mozambique against Soviet-backed insurgents in the 1960s and 70s– and in international peacekeeping. Naturally, the Brazilian Marine Corps traces its origin to the Fuzileiros as well.