Editing Portuguese Armed Forces (section)

==Personnel==
Currently, the Portuguese Armed Forces include 32,992 military personnel, of which 12% are women. The majority of the personnel is in the Army (54%), followed by the Navy (26%) and the Air Force (20%). Conscription in time of peace was fully abolished in 2004 and, since then, 100% of the military personnel is professional.

===Military service===
The defense of the Fatherland is a right and a duty of all the Portuguese. The Portuguese citizens have military obligations from the age of 18 years to the age of 35 years.

The military service include the following situations:
* Effective service - is the situation of the citizens when they are at the service of the Armed Forces. It includes effective service in the QP (career personnel), RC (contract personnel) and RV (volunteer personnel) or due to call or mobilization.
* Recruiting reserve - is made of the Portuguese citizens, from the age of 18 years to the age of 35 years, who never served in the Armed Forces, but can be object of an exceptional recruiting.
* Availability reserve - is made of the Portuguese citizens who have served in the Armed Forces, from the end of their effective service until the end of their military obligations. To call effects, the availability reserve situation includes the six subsequent years after the effective service.

In time of war, the military obligations age limits can be changed by law.

===Career and voluntary personnel===
In time of peace, the military personnel falls in two main groups: career personnel (permanent personnel) and volunteer (temporary personnel). In case of war, these two groups are added with conscript personnel.

Career personnel (QP, ''Quadro Permanente'') includes the persons who choose the military profession as their permanent life career. Admission to this career requires the [[academic degree|graduation]] in one of the higher education [[military academy|service academies]] for officers or in one of the military technical schools for non-officers. QP personnel only includes officers and sergeants in the Army and the Air Force, but it also includes other ranks in the Navy. Other ranks in the Army and the Air Force are entirely volunteer.

Volunteer personnel includes the persons who usually have a civilian profession, but volunteer to serve temporarily in the military. They might serve in roles related specifically with their civilian professions (e.g.: engineers, [[legal professionals|legal]]s, [[psychologist]]s or [[medic]]s) or in general military roles. They include officers, sergeants and other ranks. Volunteer personnel are further subdivided in two groups: contract regime (RC, ''Regime de Contrato'') and volunteer regime (RV, ''Regime de Voluntariado''). While RC personnel serves for between two and six years, RV personnel serves only for 12 months. Special RC regimes with the duration of up to 20 years are foreseen to be created for roles whose training and technical demands make desirable long periods of service. Personnel in RV can apply to serve in RC after their termination of their period of service.

===Ranks and categories===
{{Main|Military ranks of Portugal}}
Accordingly, with their level of responsibility and authority, Portuguese military personnel are divided in three categories: [[officer (armed forces)|officers]] (''oficiais''), [[sergeant]]s (''sargentos'') and other ranks (''praças''). Officers are further divided in three subcategories: [[general officer]]s (''oficiais generais''), [[Military rank#Field or senior officers|senior officers]] (''oficiais superiores'') and [[junior officer]]s (''oficiais subalternos'').

===Occupational groups===
Accordingly, with their training and role, each member of the Portuguese Armed Forces is part of an occupational group, to each of which corresponds a career and a particular list of promotion. These occupational groups have different specific designations in each branch of service.

The Navy occupational groups are named "classes". For the officers, the classes are navy (M), [[naval engineer]]s (EN), naval administration (AN), marines (FZ), [[physician|naval physicians]] (MN), naval senior technicians (TSN), technical service (ST), health technicians (TS) and musicians (MUS). For the enlisted, the classes are administrative (L), communications (C), auto mechanics-drivers (V), electro mechanics (EM), electro technicians (ET), marines (FZ), maneuvers (M), naval machinists (MQ), [[Underwater diving|diver]]s (U), musicians (B), operations (O), stewards (T) and weapons technicians (A).

The Army occupational groups are designated "corps of general officers", "arms" and "services". The corps of general officers include all generals, who may originate from the arms or from some of the services officer careers, but with only those originating from the arms being able to achieve the ranks above that of major-general. The arms are mostly careers associated with combatant roles while the services are mostly careers associated with logistical roles. For the officers, the arms are [[infantry]] (INF), [[artillery]] (ART), [[cavalry]] (CAV), [[military engineering|engineering]] (ENG) and [[military communications|communications]] (TM) and the services are military administration (ADMIL), [[Army engineering maintenance|materiel]] (MAT), medicine (MED), pharmacy (FARM), veterinary (VET), dentistry (DENT), nursery, diagnostic and therapeutic technicians (TEDT), chiefs of music band (CBMUS), communications exploration technicians (TEXPTM), communications maintenance technicians (TMANTM), [[materiel]] maintenance technicians (TMANMAT), personnel and secretariat technicians (TPESSECR), transportations technicians (TTRANS), Army general service (SGE) and parachutist general service (SGPQ). For the sergeants, the arms are infantry (INF), artillery (ART), cavalry (CAV), engineering (ENG), communications (TM) and parachutists (PARAQ) and the services are military administration (AM), materiel (MAT), medicine (MED), pharmacy (FARM), veterinary (VET), music (MUS), clarions (CLAR), personnel and secretariat (PESSECR), transportations (TRANS), Army general service (SGE) and amanuensis (AMAN).

The Army volunteers occupational groups are analogous to the arms and services, but correspond to more specific qualifications. They include functional areas subdivided in specialties for officers and sergeants and specialties for other ranks. The functional areas for the officers and sergeants are mechanized/motorized infantry (AF01), light infantry (AF02), [[field artillery]] (AF03), [[anti-aircraft artillery]] (AF04), cavalry (AF05), [[Army Police (Portugal)|Army police]] (AF06), communications (AF10), transportation (AF18), materiel (AF21), administration (AF22), personnel and secretariat (AF23), engineering (AF24), senior support technicians (AF25), health – medicine (AF26), health – nursery (AF26), health – nursery, diagnostic and therapeutic (AF27), dental health (AF28), veterinary health (AF29) and pharmacy. The specialties for the other ranks are field (Esp-01), mechanics (Esp-02), [[auto mechanic]]s (Esp-03), engineering equipment mechanics (Esp-04), [[panel beater]] mechanics (Esp-05), auto body painter mechanics (Esp-06), services (Esp-07), audiovisual-multimedia (Esp-08), audiovisual-graphics (Esp-09), services saddler-upholstery (Esp-10), services psychometric laboratory operator (Esp-11), engineering [[sapper]] (Esp-12), [[CBRN defense|NBC]] sapper (Esp-13), military light vehicles driving (Esp-14), military heavy vehicles driving (Esp-15), Army police (Esp-16), communications (Esp-17), music (Esp-18), health (Esp-19), paratroopers (Esp-20), special operations (Esp-21), commandos (Esp-22), construction (Esp-23), plumbing (Esp-24), construction carpenter (Esp-25), construction electrician (Esp-26), engineering heavy equipment operator (Esp-27), metalworking (Esp-28), [[farrier]] (Esp-29), catering (Esp-30), bakery (Esp-31) and rescue and assistance systems operator (Esp-32).

The Air Force occupational groups are designated "specialties". The officers specialties include [[Pilot (aeronautics)|pilots-aviators]] (PILAV), [[aerospace engineer|aeronautic engineers]] (ENGAER), [[transport engineering#airport engineering|aerodromes engineers]] (ENGAED), [[electrical engineer]]s (ENGEL), physicians (MED), aeronautical administration (ADMAER), jurists (JUR), psychologists (PSI), [[flight navigator|navigators]] (NAV), communications and cryptography operations technicians (TOCC), meteorology operations technicians (TOMET), air circulation and traffic radar operations technicians (TOCART), interception conduct operations technicians (TOCI), air materiel maintenance technicians (TMMA), ground materiel maintenance technicians (TMMT), electrical materiel maintenance technicians (TMMEL), armament and equipment maintenance technicians (TMAEQ), infrastructures maintenance technicians (TMI), supply technicians (TABST), IT technicians (TINF), personnel and administrative support technicians (TPAA), health technicians (TS), air police (PA) and chiefs of music band (CHBM). The enlisted personnel specialties include communications operators (OPCOM), meteorology operators (OPMET), air circulation and traffic radar operators (OPCART), detection radar operators (OPRDET), IT operators (OPINF), assistance and aid systems operators (OPSAS), air materiel mechanics (MMA), ground materiel mechanics (MMT), electricity mechanics (MELECT), electronics mechanics (MELECA), aircraft electricity and instruments mechanics (MELIAV), armament and equipment mechanics (MARME), supply (ABS), infrastructure construction and maintenance (CMI), air police (PA), secretariat and service support (SAS) and musicians (MUS).

===Uniforms and insignia===
[[File:Fusilliers marins Portugais.jpg|thumb|350px|Portuguese tri-service [[color guard]], leading a ''Fuzileiros'' detachment, showing the service dress uniforms worn by the three branches]] 
As is usual in most of the Armed Forces in the world, each branch has its own uniform regulation which is distinct from those of the other service branches. The traditional color of the Portuguese military uniforms, since the middle of the 18th century, was the ''azul ferrete'' (very dark blue). This is still the color of the [[dress uniform|full dress uniforms]] of the three service branches.

The [[Service dress|service dress uniform]] colors are the [[navy blue]] (Winter) or [[white]] (Summer) for the Navy, [[grey]] for the Army and [[air force blue]] for the Air Force. The 2019 Army uniform regulation abolished the [[olive green]] No.2 Army service dress uniform.

All the three branches have a [[military camouflage|camouflaged]] [[battledress|battledress uniform]] in the [[Disruptive Pattern Material|DPM]] pattern (from 1998 to 2010, the Air Force used instead the [[U.S. Woodland]] pattern). These camouflage patterns replaced the traditional Portuguese [[Lizard (camouflage)#Vertical lizard patterns|vertical lizard pattern]] that was in use in the three service branches from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. In the latte 2018, the Portuguese Army started to experiment the ''Sistemas de Combate do Soldado'' (Soldier's Combat Systems) individual equipment system for the dismounted soldiers, which includes the new ''Multiterreno'' camouflage pattern of the [[Multicam]]-style. The ''Multiterreno'' became the official camouflage pattern for the Army field and garrison uniforms in 2019.

The members of most of the branches, units or specialties of the three branches of the Armed Forces are identified by the wearing of [[military beret|berets]] whose colors are [[green beret|emerald green]] (Paratroopers), [[black beret|black]] (Army generic), navy blue (Marines),  [[blue beret|air force blue]] (Air Police), [[red beret|red]] (Commandos), [[moss green]] (Special Operations) and blue (Navy generic). The 2019 Army uniform regulation abolished the traditional brown beret, with black becoming the generic color of the Army berets. Until then, black berets were reserved for use by the Cavalry.

On the contrary of the uniforms, there is a standard common model of rank insignia used in the uniforms of the three service branches. The existence of a common rank insignia system has been in force since 1761, when the Portuguese Army and Navy become one of the first militaries in the world to establish a rank insignia regulation, that was common for the two existing branches at the time. The present system of rank insignia was established in 1911 and is an evolution of the previous ones. Its generic rank devices consists in stars for the general officers, in [[stripe (pattern)|stripes]] for the rest of the officers, in [[Coat of arms of Portugal|Portuguese shields]] for the senior sergeants and in [[Chevron (insignia)|chevrons]] for the rest of the sergeants and the other ranks. There is a specific rank insignia for the admirals or generals invested in the office of Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, consisting in four golden stars, which differ from the silver stars worn by the rest of the four-star rank officers (chiefs of staff of the service branches).