Defense Reform in Hungary Progressing Well

A new approach and domestic innovations are needed in defense development, while the reform of the sector is progressing well, as the government has made timely decisions on its implementation, the Ministerial Commissioner for Defense Innovation told public media’s M1 television channel.

Brigadier General Imre Porkoláb said that the Ministry of Defense had recently set up the Defense Innovation Research Institute to coordinate development. He also pointed out that although only a small number of Hungarian-made weapons are used by the Hungarian Defense Forces as of now, they would like to produce more and more of them. The reason for this is that it takes a long time to obtain weapons from abroad and Hungarian manufacturers are waiting for new opportunities.

“On the one hand, we need to set up systems where we create so-called incubators, i.e. we help people from the idea stage to the point where they can create a prototype. This is first and foremost the first process of innovation.

Then we would help those who already have such prototypes to technologize them, so we would try to keep manufacturing at home in certain devices so that they do not take them abroad,”

Porkoláb said on the program.

As the above-mentioned reforms are extremely technology-intensive, we need to create factories in Hungary that can produce the necessary products. Hungary is also leading the way in this respect, with the foundation stone of a Rheinmetall ammunition factory recently laid in Várpalota, and Rheinmetall is also building a new factory in Zalaegerszeg for armored fighting vehicles.

Porkoláb also said that the Hungarian armed forces have learned lessons from the crisis in Ukraine and have already started to process the experiences of the conflict. They have started to incorporate these lessons into the development of the force, possibly with some changes in direction.

Featured photo via Facebook/Ministry of Defense