National Republican Guard (Portugal)
The National Republican Guard or GNR is the national gendarmerie force of Portugal.
Members of the GNR are military personnel, subject to military law and organisation, unlike the agents of the civilian Public Security Police (PSP).
The GNR is responsible for the preventive police and highway patrol in 94% of Portuguese territory. At national level, GNR also has duties of customs enforcement, coastal control, nature protection, search and rescue operations and state ceremonial guards of honor.
Since the 2000s, the GNR has provided detachments for participation in international operations in Iraq, East Timor and other theatres.
As October 2023, the GNR is now partly in charge of controlling the Portuguese borders, with the dissolution of the Foreigners and Borders Service.
Strength
The GNR deploys over 22,608 personnel over 90 percent of Portuguese territory. The GNR are deployed in Bosnia as part of IFOR/SFOR/EUFOR Althea and 140 GNR were also deployed between 2006 and 2012 in Timor-Leste as part of UNMIT.Organization
The National Republican Guard is in peacetime subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Administration for recruitment, administration, discipline and operational control and is also subordinate to the Ministry of National Defence for "uniformisation and normalisation" of military doctrine, armament and equipment. In wartime or situations of crisis, the GNR can be placed under the operational control of the Armed Forces General Staff.Until 2007, the GNR maintained a traditional organization, whose bases still followed the organizational structure established in the early 20th century. This organization included: territorial units, special units and reserve units. The old organization also included a central structure that reflected the command of a military field division, including a military-type staff.
In 2006, the multinational consulting company Accenture made a study, requested by the Government of Portugal, that recommended the change of the organization of the Portuguese security forces, including a radical reorganization of the GNR.
Most of the recommendations regarding GNR were accepted and, in accordance with the Law No. 63/2007, its traditional structure was replaced by a new and considerably different one, that was implemented in early 2009.
The GNR is commanded by a general officer, with the title of Commandant-General.
The National Republican Guard now includes the following:
Command Headquarters and HQ Services, NRG
Source:- GNR General Headquarters in Largo do Carmo, in Central Lisbon;
- Direção de Justiça e Disciplina ;
- Divisão de Planeamento Estratégico e Relações Internacionais ;
- Divisão de Comunicação e Relações Públicas ;
- Comando Operacional ;
- Comando da Administração dos Recursos internos ;
- Comando da Doutrina e Formação.
Territorial Units
The old four-brigade structure was replaced by a system of territorial commands, each covering a district or an autonomous region. Each territorial command – commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel – includes detachments – commanded by majors, captains or junior officer, Sub-detachments – led by junior officers – and posts – led by sergeants. Each territorial command usually includes a traffic detachment and a detachment of intervention. The territorial commands of the Azores and Madeira play, essentially, just a coastal monitoring and fiscal actions, respectively, under the functional dependence of the UCC and UAF. The current territorial commands correspond essentially to the previous territorial groups of the old territorial brigades. With the extinction of the territorial brigades by the end of 2008, the territorial commands were placed in direct dependence on the central structure of command of GNR;The territorial commands are as follows:
- Azores Territorial Command
- Aveiro Territorial Command
- Beja Territorial Command
- Braga Territorial Command
- Bragança Territorial Command
- Castelo Branco Territorial Command
- Coimbra Territorial Command
- Évora Territorial Command
- Faro Territorial Command
- Guarda Territorial Command
- Leiria Territorial Command
- Lisbon Territorial Command
- Madeira Territorial Command
- Portalegre Territorial Command
- Porto Territorial Command
- Santarém Territorial Command
- Setúbal Territorial Command
- Viseu Territorial Command
- Viana do Castelo Territorial Command
- Vila Real Territorial Command
Special Units
Special Units fall directly under the Operations Command.- Coastal Control Unit – Essentially a coast guard service but without dedicated Search & Rescue and other functions, is commanded by a major-general, is responsible for surveillance and interception at sea and coast, including the operation of the Integrated Surveillance, Command and Control System, distributed along the Portuguese coast. This unit replaced the former Maritime Service of the Fiscal Brigade;
- Fiscal Action Unit – commanded by a colonel, is responsible for carrying out the mission of taxation, tax and customs attributed to the GNR. It succeeded the previous Fiscal Brigade;
- National Transit Unit – the national Highway Patrol, is commanded by a colonel, is responsible for standardization of procedures and training under the supervision of traffic. This unit replaced the central structure of the former Traffic Brigade, losing its territorial subunits transit, which went to the dependence of the various command authorities;
- Security and State Honor Unit – commanded by a major-general, is responsible for tasks of representation and security of the organs of sovereignty. Includes the Presidential Squadron, Horse Band, the Guard Marching Band, the State Honors and Security Group. This unit replaced the old Regimento de Cavalaria and part of the old Regimento de Infantaria ;
- Intervention Unit – commanded by a major-general, is responsible for the missions of maintaining and restoring public order, management of critical incidents, tactical operations, security of sensitive installations, inactivation of explosives, protection and relief and projection of forces for international missions. Includes the Public Order Intervention Group, the Special Operations Intervention Group, the Intervention Group for Protection and Rescue, the Canine Intervention Group, the Center for Ordnance Disposal and Underground Security and the International Missions Force Training and Readiness Centre. This unit was organized with several subunits of the former Infantry Regiment.
Services
- Serviço de Protecção da Natureza e do Ambiente- SEPNA
Educational establishment
- NRG Basic School – commanded by a major-general, is responsible for technical and professional training of military personnel of the GNR. Includes training centers in Figueira da Foz and Portalegre.
History
The National Republican Guard is the direct descendant of the Royal Police Guard created in the beginning of the 19th century.Royal Guard of the Police, 1801
The Royal Guard of the Police of Lisbon was created in 1801 by Prince Regent John on the initiative of the Intendant-General of the Police of the Court and the Kingdom, Pina Manique. It took as a model the French Gendarmerie.Following the creation of Lisbon's Royal Guard of the Police, a similar Guard was created in Porto. After the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Rio de Janeiro, after the invasion of Portugal by the Napoleonic forces in 1807, a similar Royal Guard of the Police of Rio de Janeiro was created, this being the origin of the present military police of that state and of the other member states of Brazil.
Municipal Guard, 1834
At the end of May, 1834, as a result of the Civil War, King Peter IV, assuming the regency in name of his daughter Queen Mary II, disbanded the Royal Police Guard in Lisbon and Porto, creating the "Municipal Guards" of Lisbon and Porto on the basis of similar conditions.In 1868 both of the Guards were put under a unified Commandant-General, installed in the Carmo Barracks in Lisbon, which today still is the Headquarters of the GNR. The Municipal Guard was considered part of the Army, but was dependent on the Ministry of Internal Affairs for all matters regarding public security.
Republican Guard, 1910
After the 5 October 1910 revolution, which replaced the Constitutional Monarchy with the Republic, the new regime changed the name of the Municipal Guard to the Republican Guard, keeping the same organization. At this time, plans were already underway for the transformation of this Guard into a National Republican Guard, covering all the territory of Portugal.National Republican Guard, 1911
In 1911, the Republican Guard was transformed in the National Republican Guard : this was to be a security force consisting of military personnel organised in a special corps of troops depending, in peace time, on the Ministry of Internal Administration, for the purpose of conscription, administration and execution with regards to its mission, and the Ministry of the National Defense for the purpose of uniformization and normalization of the military doctrine, as well as for its armament and equipment. In case of war or situation of crisis, the forces of National Republican Guard will, in terms of the respective laws and for operational effect, be subordinated to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.In 1993 the National Republican Guard absorbed the independent Fiscal Guard that became the Fiscal Brigade of the GNR. In 2006 a new GNR unit was created with the purpose of firefighting and was named GIPS.
A unit of the GNR was deployed in Iraq during the NATO mission MNF-I within the Italian led Multinational Specialized Unit.
A small contingent of GNR forces were deployed in Timor-Leste in 2006.
Equipment
Armament
Sources:Police services in Portugal have always used a wide range of firearms in 9×19mm to equip their personnel.
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