The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) has delivered the last batch of 139 armoured vehicles to the Portuguese Army, consisting of eight Emergency Response Vehicles, under the Light Armoured Tactical Vehicle programme or Viaturas Taticas Ligeiras Blindades (VTLC). The contract was awarded to the Spanish company Urovesa in 2018 and included the supply of the vehicles a weapon station, training, documentation and special tools. The first batch of vehicles were delivered in October 2020 and has been deployed in support of Portuguese commitments to United Nations operations in the Central African Republic.
The delivery concludes a multiyear acquisition project aimed to provide the Portuguese Armed Forces with a fleet of armoured vehicles composed of 107 troop transports, seven command vehicles, 13 medical evacuation and 12 special operations vehicles. In September 2021, the Portuguese Army and NSPA project team participated in the First Article Testing and Acceptance of the configured ambulance vehicles at the contractor’s production facility in Pontevedra, Spain. The process involved the physical inspection, trials and verification of the vehicles performance and characteristics against the Portuguese Army’s specific requirements.
The medical units have been designed to operate in deep fording areas and are equipped with collective Nuclear, Biological and Chemical protection systems. They also have a sanitary cell equipped with electromedical, immobilisation and communications equipment, as well as diagnostic and treatment material. In addition, the medical units are highly armoured and protected against ballistic and mine threats. All vehicles are configured for a variety of roles and missions and provided with ballistic, blast and mine protection while providing high dynamic performance in terms of capacity loading and mobility on all types of roads and terrain.
The URO VAMTAC (Vehículo de Alta Movilidad Táctico, “High Mobility Tactical Vehicle”) is a Spanish four-wheel drive military vehicle manufactured by the UROVESA. The URO VAMTAC was developed by the Spanish company URO, Vehiculos Especiales S.A. so that it would meet the requirements of the Spanish military for a multipurpose, air-portable, high mobility off-road vehicle with good payload capacity. Externally it is similar in appearance and design to the Humvee of the United States Military due to similar requirements. More than 2,000 of the vehicles have been delivered to the Spanish Armed Forces. Several other countries operate the VAMTAC as well, and it has seen service most recently in Afghanistan and Syria. The vehicle comes in two models, named I3, S3 and ST5, and has several configurations.
