Defense Forces to Improve Airspace Security

On Friday, May 31, the leaders of the Ministry of Defense, the Hungarian Defense Forces, and civil air traffic control company HungaroControl Zrt., signed a renewed and expanded cooperation agreement in Budapest. The document was signed by Minister of Defense Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, General Gábor Böröndi, Chief of the Defense Staff, and László Tóth, CEO of HungaroControl Zrt., reports Honvedelem.hu.

At the event, the Minister of Defense stressed that in the current situation, when a war is taking place in Europe, the security of airspace has become more important than ever. This is what the renewal of the cooperation agreement serves.

The Minister noted: “We hope that the message of peace will reach politicians not only in Hungary but also in the other Member States of the European Union in a clear and unequivocal way.”

In this situation, he said, it was important to ensure professional cooperation between civilian and military organizations, and there was a need for closer cooperation between civilian and military air traffic control.

General Gábor Böröndi said that HungaroControl, the Hungarian Defense Forces, and the Ministry of Defense are working together in a more organized way thanks to the agreement.

The agreement combines expertise and capabilities to perform their tasks in the best possible way, in peace and in “qualified situations,” for the benefit of society and the security of the Hungarian people,

he added. The Chief of Defense Staff welcomed the fact that many active-duty soldiers are serving at HungaroControl, and during their training they also got acquainted with the soldiers performing air traffic control and their tasks at the air control center of the Hungarian Defense Forces in Veszprém (western Hungary).

László Tóth stressed that the company’s aim is to raise civil-military cooperation to a new level, and this has therefore become one of the main pillars of its revised corporate strategy. He stated that their goal is to support the efforts of the government and the defense forces to increase the country’s defense capabilities. To this end, they have introduced voluntary reserve service in a corporate environment, with 40 employees becoming voluntary reserve soldiers and taking the military oath. They have also started coordinating tasks related to the control of drone traffic and are coordinating the procurement of equipment for radar surveillance over Hungary.

The agreement will enable both civilian and military participants to gain a deeper understanding of each other’s planning and implementation processes and operations and to assist each other more effectively when needed.

HungaroControl and the Hungarian Defense Forces will mutually delegate their experts to the various exercises and express their intention to provide extensive support for the training of each other’s specialist staff.

They also intend to involve the other party in their research and development activities in order to enable the military adaptation of innovative solutions in the future, reads the renewed cooperation agreement.

Via Honvedelem.hu, Featured image: Honvedelem.hu