Politics 5 November 2026

Portugal signs up for 72 German Boxer armoured vehicles, to be built and serviced at home

Defence ministers Nuno Melo and Boris Pistorius signed a declaration of intent in Berlin on 4 November covering the Boxer purchase for the Portuguese Army, talks on training F-35 pilots in Portugal, drones and a satellite-launch site on Santa Maria in the Azores.

The Portuguese Army is getting 72 Boxer armoured vehicles in a deal worth more than a billion euros, and the plan is for them to be built and maintained in Portugal. The purchase was the most concrete item in the declaration of intent Nuno Melo signed in Berlin with his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius on Wednesday, as reported by Lusa and carried by ECO.

By our sums, a billion divided by 72 comes to roughly 13.9 million euros a vehicle, at the very least. According to Lusa, the industrial side (manufacturing and upkeep on Portuguese soil) is part of the package.

What a Boxer is

It is an eight-wheeled armoured vehicle made by ARTEC, a joint venture of Franco-German KNDS and Germany’s Rheinmetall. It drives on roads like a lorry and carries an infantry section under armour. Specialist defence titles had been talking since February about 80 to 90 units for Portugal, paid for with cheap loans from the EU’s SAFE programme and meant to replace the army’s ageing M113s. The figure that came out of Berlin is 72.

Not just armour

The declaration goes well beyond the vehicles. Melo mentioned talks about training F-35 pilots in Portugal through a partnership involving Lufthansa Technik, without saying where or when. He also described a planned satellite-launch facility on Santa Maria island in the Azores as a European alternative, with German companies in talks with the Portuguese Air Force. Pistorius promised “millions” for satellite communications.

Drones feature too (a Portuguese company investing in Munich, Portuguese drones already in use in Ukraine), alongside intelligence-sharing and joint exercises. Melo noted that Portugal reached 2% of GDP on defence in 2025 and has committed 50 million euros to Ukraine through the PEARL programme.

It is the second defence pact of real strategic weight to cross our desk this week, after Greenland’s parliament backed its deal with Washington. What is still missing in Portugal’s case is a timetable: neither delivery dates nor a final contract have been made public.

By Tomás Vasconcelos

Image: Lupus in Saxonia / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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