Portugal has reportedly chosen Thales’ RapidRanger as its new short-range air defense system.
Introduced on the country’s army Instagram by Captain Filipe Gonçalves, the RapidRanger is shown alongside the Thales-developed STARStreak and Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM).
The announcement comes a year after Portugal issued a tender to upgrade its anti-aircraft artillery system.
Features
The RapidRanger is a vehicle-based automated defense system capable of quickly detecting and responding to air and ground threats.
The system can be mounted on different types of armored vehicles and can fire missiles such as the STARStreak and LMM.
It features day and night cameras, thermal imaging, a 360-degree omnidirectional surveillance sensor, and an automatic target tracker to detect and respond to threats.
The RapidRanger can detect targets up to 15 kilometers (9 miles) away and neutralize them at a range of up to 7 kilometers (4 miles).
Military Modernization Efforts
In 2023, Portugal introduced the Military Programming Law, which included comprehensive measures to upgrade its military.
The program allocates public investment in armed forces equipment with an unprecedented budget of 5.57 billion euros ($5.96 billion) covering land, maritime, air, cyber, and space through 2034.
Earlier this month, Lisbon signed a framework agreement for 36 Caesar NG self-propelled howitzers from France.
The deal is expected to enhance interoperability with other NATO members.
In June, Lisbon received its second KC-390 multi-mission aircraft from Embraer, with three more aircraft expected to be delivered by 2027.