After the April 1974 revolution, Portugal's involvement in the wars in its African colonies finally came to an end. At the same time, the UN arms embargo was lifted and the personnel of the Forca Aerea Portuguesa (FAP) began to be demobilised for their return to the Portuguese mainland. In the wake of the revolution, several aircraft types were either retired or donated to the new governments of the ex-colonies of Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique, and a very few were abandoned on their airfields in Africa. With the MP's return to operations from mainland Portugal, the air force was subject to much-needed reorganisation. From 1975, the FAP's impressive strength of 868 aircraft and some 22,000 personnel began to be reduced. A slow programme of fleet renewal was also taking place, and as a result the FAP acquired 24 CASA C-212 Aviocars in October 1974. The Aviocar replaced several types, including the obsolete Ju 52/3m, the few remaining C-47s, and the Noratlas, which was finally retired in 1977. Many of the FAP's C-47s never returned from Africa, as the Portuguese government either donated or sold them to the air forces of the ex-colonies. As early as 1973 the PAP had begun to look for a replacement for the war-weary Do 27, but the UN arms embargo made it impossible to find an available and suitable successor. Only in December 1974, with the embargo lifted, were the first three examples of the Reims-Cessna FTB-337G Milirole delivered, these being the first batch from a total order of 32.
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