The Portuguese Air Force (FAP) there is not, for now, another alternative other than Mértola as a possible destination to relocate your Alcochete Shooting Range (CTA), if the new Lisbon airport is built on those lands.
The Alcochete military shooting range is the only one in the country that allows air-to-ground shooting training with F-16 fighters.
Asked by DN about what he had planned and prepared in relation to the relocation of that shooting range, the office of the 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”.
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), Mértola's hypothesis was considered as the one that best served the operational requirements of the Air Force and “no other locations have been studied since then”.
Military sources then revealed to Lusa that the Mértola area, “the characteristics of the terrain and low population density”, could be an alternative and that in any future option, there must be the possibility of having “tactical aircraft flying at high speed, maneuvering and dropping real bombs”.
As reported, na height, the Express, This is land connecting the municipality of Mértola to Serpa, northeast of Pulo do Lobo, on the left bank of the Guadiana, which had already been studied by the Air Force 2008, with both local authorities expressing their opposition.
DN contacted the office of the president of the municipality of Mértola this Wednesday, Mario Thomas (PS), who did not want to speak.
News: Lidador News/Diário de NotÃcias
