Já existe um memorando de entendimento para a saída da Força Aérea do Aeródromo Militar de Lisboa, o Aeródromo de Trânsito n.º 1, tecnicamente designado AT1. Terreno na ligação dos concelhos de Mértola e Serpa, northeast of Pulo do Lobo, on the left bank of the Guadiana, será única operação para o campo de tiro.
A televisão SIC revelou que estão “por definir” the “valores de compensação a pagar à Força Aérea, uma vez que irão incluir a compra de um novo terreno para reinstalar o campo de tiro de Alcochete, bem como a alteração do uso do aeroporto militar atualmente existente no Montijo”.
A construção do novo aeroporto em Alcochete, obriga à deslocalização do campo de tiro da Força Aérea vai ter que ser deslocalizado e aqui entra o distrito de Beja, more specifically the municipalities of Mértola and Serpa.
In 7 December last year, o Lidador Notícias revelava que a FAP não tinha outra alternativa que não seja Mértola como possível destino para deslocalizar o seu campo de tiro, since in 22 November 2007, a situação começou a ser estudada.
Na altura fonte do gabinete do Chefe de Estado-Maior da Força Aérea, General Cartaxo Alves, respondeu que “independentemente da solução que vier a ser tomada, the Air Force will always be, as in other circumstances, parte da mesma”.
However, according to military sources, from 2017, when the Alcochete option for the new airport had already been considered the most advantageous by LNEC (National Civil Engineering Laboratory), a hipótese de Mértola foi ponderada como aquela que melhor servia os requisitos operacionais da Força Aérea e “nenhuma outra localização foi estudada desde então”.
The first steps to relocate the Shooting Range
Remember that the “first steps” to change the infrastructure to Vale no Poço, place also known as “Factories”, in the municipalities of Mértola and Serpa, were given in 22 November 2007, subject that was discussed again twelve years later, by the then Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CEMFA), General Manuel Roll, at the end of a parliamentary hearing, realizada a 16 January 2019, stressing that “it is fundamental for the operability of F-16 aircraft”.
Justifying that “it is a postponed project that has an estimated cost of around 242 million euros ", said, remembering that there is a study that shows a possible location for the shooting range [Alentejo] when the question is put. Manuel Rolo justified that the highest charge would be made with the transfer of the Alcochete Shooting Field to the Mértola/Serpa area, between 2024 and 2036: the cost will exceed 242 million.
In December 2023, interviewed by Diário de Notícias (DN) about what had been planned and prepared in relation to the relocation of that shooting range, the office of the now Air Force Chief of Staff, General Cartaxo Alves, just replied that “regardless of the solution that is taken, the Air Force will always be, as in other circumstances, part of the same”.
In November 2007, Mayors of Mértola and Serpa demonstrated against the possible installation of a shooting range in the common saw the two municipalities to replace the Alcochete, claiming that a tourism project is planned for the area. Portuguese Air Force Source (FAP) then revealed that the Mértola area, “due to the characteristics of the terrain and low demographic density”, could be an “alternative to studying”.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
