The Portuguese government acquired the Corsair II to replace the PoAF's North American F-86 Sabre fighters, with two orders being placed for a total of 50 A-7Ps and TA-7Ps.

However, it had also become clear in the late-1960s that Portugal lacked a modern fighter capable of carrying out strikes with heavy payloads deep inside enemy territory.

[4] In 1969 the French government's foreign relations underwent a change with Charles de Gaulle leaving office and Georges Pompidou taking over as president.

[5] Later in November Viana Rebelo was replaced as minister of Defense by Silva Cunha, who was able to obtain additional funding for the rearmament of the armed forces.

[6] Following new funding, a new plan was made in February 1974 to acquire new aircraft for the Air Force, which included 32 Dassault Mirage 5 fighters along with 239 other airplanes and helicopters.

[8] The conflict in Guinea escalated in March 1973 and the PAIGC was able to shoot down five aircraft with newly acquired Strela 2 surface-to-air missile launchers.

[10] Further reports mentioned the possible involvement of the Guinea Air Force, which had started receiving help from Cuban pilots and technicians to maintain its MiG-17F fleet that were mostly inoperable.

[14] On April 3, 1974, the International Affairs assistant director of the French Ministry of Defense, Philippe Esper, met in Lisbon with the Portuguese government to start negotiations and discuss the imposition of restrictions, delivery schedule, and pilot and ground crew training.

[14][15] Later on April 24, 1974, the Portuguese minister of Foreign Affairs, Rui Patrício, met with the French ambassador Bernard Durand in Lisbon to further discuss the restrictions regarding the basing of any fighters supplied by France in Guinea, given the need to dissuade attacks by rebel aircraft operating from Guinea-Conakry.

At this time the French prime minister had already given permission for the sale of 32 Mirage IIIE aircraft valued at 750 million francs while maintaining the restrictions that the Portuguese had not agreed with.

[citation needed] During a meeting on July 30, 1974, at the Foreign Affairs Ministry regarding an agreement for the use of the Lajes Air Base, a revised request was presented, which only listed 16 F-5E Tiger IIs, 16 T-38As, 20 T-41As and 12 AH-1Q Cobras for Portuguese service at an estimated value of 165 million dollars.

A first proposal was for the purchase of 20 F-5 Tiger II to be delivered between May and October 1981, at a cost of 120 million dollars; additional spare parts were not included.

The final proposal was for the acquisition of 30 A-7A Corsair II for 49 million dollars, which would be paid completely with the money from the Lajes agreement and that would have still have left funds for the modernization of the aircraft.

However, with the selection of the A-7, it was only in 1982 that new talks took place, with the RNoAF offering the sale of 11 F-5A that would require additional repairs due to cracks found in the airframe.

In the same year the RNoAF made a new offer of 15 to 20 F-5A/B, but the PoAF declined; since most of the aircraft would have required repairs and the airframes had few flight hours left.

[31] Without a dedicated air-to-air combat fighter, the A-7P permanently took over the air defense role until the entry in Portuguese service of the F-16 Fighting Falcon in 1994.

[26][29] Six TA-7P later bought were also former A-7A airframes converted to tandem, twin-seat aircraft for training and operational pilot conversion that had the same capabilities as the A-7P with the exception of the guns, which were replaced by an oxygen system.

[33] This version was equipped with two Colt Mk 12 cannon that originally were used by the USN's A-7A and was capable of using newer missiles and bombs due to its modern avionics and sensors.

[26] Official delivery of the A-7P took place on August 18, 1981, at Andrews Air Force Base, where the Portuguese ambassador announced the intention to order a second squadron.

The first echelon performed by the squadron mechanics was responsible for service of the aircraft and their equipment, preflight and daily inspections, light repairs, anti-corrosive treatments, parts replacement, and refueling, while the second echelon was carried out at dedicated facilities at Monte Real Air Base (BA5) and was responsible for the periodic preventive inspections and the periodic servicing for the systems, engines and other aircraft equipment.

[41] The third echelon responsible for Standard Depot Level Maintenance (SDLM) such as advanced periodic inspections and repairs to the airframe, avionics, electric systems, hydraulic components and engines was performed at the workshops at Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal S.A. (OGMA), then part of the Air Force.

This first A-7P (PoAF s/n 15540; BuAer s/n 154346) was lost and destroyed prior to its delivery while undergoing flight testing due to a bird strike incident, resulting in the death of the pilot.

[46] The loss of a number of aircraft to accidents and problems with obtaining spare parts led Portugal in the late 1980s to begin the process of replacing the A-7 fleet, and in early 1990 a decision was made to acquire the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon.

[38][52] The retired airframes belonging to the PoAF were then transferred to the General Storage Complex of the Air Force (Portuguese: Depósito Geral de Material da Força Aérea, DGMFA) in Alverca.