The Defense Minister stressed that the reform of the armed forces will continue in 2023.Continue reading
It is important that the combat readiness of the Hungarian armed forces is at all times at its best, the Defense Minister said in a video posted on his Facebook page on Sunday. Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky added that this includes not only improving technical equipment, but also personnel, so that as many young officers as possible are appointed to higher posts.
The Minister of Defense said that “we are living in an era of threats.” For this very reason, he stressed, it is inevitable that younger officers and non-commissioned officers should be placed in leadership, management, control, and commander positions in order to increase the combat readiness of the Hungarian armed forces.
In the course of force development, new, very modern digital equipment is constantly being added to the force, and to operate it, officers and non-commissioned officers with modern qualifications and international experience who speak the language of the country, are needed. The same people are needed to apply the combat procedures that can be learned in modern conflicts. The minister noted that physical fitness is also needed to keep up with the troops.
The equipment keeps coming, stressed Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky. He recalled that “we already have” the Leopards. The Lynx armored fighting vehicle was recently unveiled, a high-tech vehicle that will be the first of its kind to be fielded by the Hungarian army and manufactured in Hungary. And for air defense, radar systems, which are part of the famous Israeli Iron Dome, will arrive this year, as well as the missiles that will fully secure Hungarian airspace, he added.
The Minister said that in addition to the above,
they also have a ten-year plan for the future, as part of which they will be able to bring the most advanced, high-tech equipment to Hungary.
It should also be borne in mind that Hungary may need to rely on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) defense alliance, but it must defend its borders with its own military forces, or at least provide sufficient deterrence to ensure that it is not threatened from any direction. “Therefore we cannot wait, we cannot delay. We must bring the Hungarian armed forces to the highest possible state of readiness in the shortest possible time,” the Minister said.
Szalay-Bobrovniczky already mentioned earlier that Hungary is entering a new phase of military development based on lessons learned from the Russian-Ukrainian war, which aims to introduce the latest technologies and then to unite the individual elements into a strong national army.
Featured photo via Facebook/Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky