Hungarian Defense Forces’ Vision Outlined by New Chief of Staff
Hungary’s new Chief of the Defense Staff, Lieutenant General Gábor Böröndi, has emphasized the need to raise the country’s combat readiness, training, and exercises so that the Hungarian Defense Forces (HDF) can fight a war if necessary. Lieutenant General Böröndi, who was appointed Chief of Staff a week ago, acknowledged that the Russian-Ukrainian war has shown the importance of air defense, drone applications, and deep-penetration firefights that the HDF has not yet encountered in its past deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo. The Chief of Staff also spoke of the importance of drawing lessons from the Russian-Ukrainian war and bringing “the drone culture” to strengthen the HDF’s reconnaissance capabilities. To this end, he plans to increase the number of participants in weekend exercises from the current three or four hundred to two or three thousand. Additionally, the Chief of Staff emphasized the priority given by Hungary to build up a reserve force that serves as “our ambassadors in a given region or village” and helps the HDF reach citizens. Ultimately, the security of Hungary and its citizens comes first, and the HDF must guarantee this, Lieutenant General Böröndi said on Radio Kossuth. He stressed that “war is a genre where there is no second place”, and the HDF should prepare for security challenges even if Hungary is not directly affected by a war. At the same time, he said that “all processes must point in the direction of stopping escalation through peace”.
