The last time a similar operation of this scale was conducted was in 2015, when the border fence had to be built on Hungary’s southern border due to migration pressure from the south.
The Hungarian Defence Forces will hold a multi-national exercise named Adaptive Hussars 23 in November 2023, with the participation of NATO forces, to test the country’s defence capabilities. In the coming weeks, the Hungarian Defence Forces will conduct military operations in several parts of the country, strengthening cooperation between the Hungarian Defence Forces and the civil administration, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Hungary’s Minister of Defence announced.
The Defence Minister added: ‘For the Hungarian government, the preservation of peace and the security of Hungary and the Hungarian people is the utmost priority, which can be guaranteed by a well-trained defence force, which is why, together with the Chief of the Hungarian Defence Staff Gábor Böröndi, a much more comprehensive exercise than before has been ordered.’
In late September, General Gábor Böröndi, Chief of the General Staff of the Hungarian Defence Forces, spoke about the changing security environment of the Hungarian Defence Forces and the significance of the comprehensive exercise. He opined:
‘After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, an army used to peace had to be shaken up: training and readiness had to be reorganised to ensure that we had a prepared, responsive and well-equipped defence force, however, it is important to stress that Hungary is on the side of peace in the context of the war in its neighbourhood.’
In order to achieve the objectives set by the Chief of General Staff, including mental renewal and combat readiness, the Hungarian Defence Forces will hold this broader spectrum exercise, where the HDF will not only carry out military manoeuvres in eight locations across the country, but the cooperation between the Hungarian Defence Forces and the civil administration will also be assessed.
Regarding the training exercise, the General said that the last time a similar operation of this scale was conducted was in 2015, when the border fence had to be built on Hungary’s southern border due to migration pressure from the south.
‘When the Hungarian Defence Forces were given the task of protecting the border, they had to deploy from the Serbian-Romanian-Hungarian triple border all the way to the Austrian border, and we had to deploy and transport large numbers of troops, organize logistics and communications. The scale of the operation at the time was close to that of the exercise we are planning for November,’ he recalled.
In addition to the joint exercise, which will further strengthen Hungary’s commitment to the defence of the Euro-Atlantic region, cooperation between the country and NATO is very broad. Earlier this year, at the end of September, two major NATO innovative bodies, the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) and the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) held their conferences in Budapest — Hungary is one of the founding members of both.
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