The Government announced today that the New Lisbon Airport (NAL), It will be built at the Alcochete Shooting Field and named Luís de Camões. The construction requires the relocation of the Shooting Field and the solution will be Mértola/Serpa.
With the construction of the new airport in Alcochete, today announced by the Government, requires the relocation of the Air Force Shooting Range, it will have to be relocated and this is where the district of Beja comes in, more specifically the municipalities of Mértola and Serpa.
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”.
The first steps to relocate the Shooting Range
It is recalled that on 22 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”.
On the occasion, the then president of the municipality of Mértola, or socialist Jorge Pulido Valente, and the vice-president of Serpa, the communist José Sesinando, assured that “a technician was in the technical departments of the two local authorities this week, to evaluate land in the municipalities”.
Both in Mértola and Serpa, “the technician asked to consult the Municipal Master Plan, to identify and evaluate land in the municipality for a study with a view to the possible installation of a shooting range”, said Jorge Pulido Valente.
Lidador Notícias sought a telephone contract with the president of the municipality of Mértola, Mario Thomas (PS), to get a reaction, but this was not possible.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
