Hungarian DefMin opens Adaptive Hussars 23 exercise

Hungary’s government sees the security of Hungarians and preserving peace as its priority, the defence minister said in Hódmezővásárhely on Tuesday, at the opening event of the Adaptive Hussars 23 international military exercise held in the presence of President Katalin Novák.

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said Hungary was building a military capable of facing all security challenges in close cooperation with its allies.

In the current “era of dangers”, Europe faces war, illegal migration and the threat of terrorism, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said. The national security service has warned of the possibility of “trained soldiers of terrorist organisations, and with them the threat of terrorism, at the borders of Hungary,” he said.

At the same time, the Armed Forces and defence industry are thriving, with new factories, successful recruitment, and performance showing “the Armed Forces have reached a new level”, he said.

Adaptive Hussars 23, a complex international exercise with participants from Italy, Turkiye, Croatia and the US, is taking place in several parts of the country, involving much of the Armed Forces and public administration, he said. The exercise is about testing and developing the country’s defence capabilities, he said.

The initial phase involves some 1,000 troops, 340 of whom are foreign and 170 Hungarian.

Besides Hungarian and foreign military units deployed to Hungary, the exercise involves some 4,500 members of Hungarian public administration, he said.

Adaptive Hussars 23 is the largest exercise of the Hungarian Armed Forces this year, “a test of everything we have built and created so far. We will see where we stand and what and how we should bolster further,” he said.

The exercise will improve cooperation between various branches of public administration and soldiers, while public servants will have a better knowledge of how to help each other in joint tasks, he said.

In military life “we must always hope for the best but prepare for the worst. We must be ready to do what needs to be done for our family, our localities and the country…” Szalay-Bobrovniczky said.

Source: MTI