New Chief of Staff Outlines Vision for the Hungarian Defense Forces

The new Chief of the Hungarian Defense Staff has said that it is his duty to raise the level of combat readiness, training, and exercises so that the Hungarian Defense Forces are able to fight a war in Hungary’s interest, if necessary.

Lieutenant General Gábor Böröndi, the Chief of General Staff, who was appointed a week ago, said on public television channel M1, referring to the war in Ukraine: “An average person says I hope there will be no war, but you cannot build an army on hope. An army must be prepared to fight a war successfully.” At the same time, “all processes must point in the direction of stopping escalation through peace,” he stated.

Böröndi said that the experience of the Russian-Ukrainian war should be incorporated into the preparations. “Hungarian soldiers were outstanding in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo, but the air defense and drone applications that we are seeing in the Russian-Ukrainian war have not yet appeared there,” the Lieutenant General continued.

He added that

the combat elements, battalion brigades, “must be raised to a higher level, forged together,” and the Defense Forces must be able to carry out national defense tasks, as well as defend the country’s territory in NATO alliances.

The Chief of Staff also spoke about the priority given by Hungary to build up a reserve force. “They are our ambassadors in a given region or village, and it is through them that we reach the citizens,” Böröndi stressed. He added that they must receive the best training and preparation, “and training must be made experiential.” He also indicated that he plans to increase the number of participants in weekend exercises from the current three or four hundred to two or three thousand.

Böröndi also made an interview on Radio Kossuth on Tuesday, where he said that even if we are not directly affected by the war, only our immediate surroundings, there will still be security challenges for which the Hungarian Defense Forces must be prepared. “We have to bring back the war culture within the Hungarian Defense Forces, precisely for the sake of peace,” he stressed.

He added that “war is a genre where there is no second place.”

The security of Hungary and Hungarian citizens comes first, the Hungarian Defense Forces must guarantee this, “we must go back to the training ground, we must raise the level of preparation, training, and combat leadership.”

The Chief of Staff also spoke of the need to draw lessons from the Russian-Ukrainian war, such as the importance of reconnaissance, intelligence, and deep-penetration firefights to disrupt supply lines. In addition, there is a need to return to all-arms combat, to strengthen reconnaissance capabilities, and to bring in “the drone culture,” he emphasized.

Featured photo via Facebook/Magyar Honvédség