Hungary takes over the air defence duties over Baltic states, army to increase disaster management staff
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In view of natural disasters near Hungary in the past weeks, the Hungarian Armed Forces have decided to bump up personnel numbers serving in disaster management, Army Commander Lieutenant General Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said on Monday.
Last month, two Hungarian helicopters assisted in combatting a wide-spread wildfire in Slovenia, and other countries, including Hungary, can be facing similar challenges in the near future, he said.
In case of a natural disaster in Hungary, 250 servicemembers will be able to perform simpler tasks, while working groups were assigned to operate machines and perform more complex duties, Ruszin-Szendi said. The army is also performing logistical and health-care tasks, he said.
Hungarian Gripen patrols Baltic airspace for the third time
From August, Hungarian Gripen aircraft will once again guard the Baltic airspace for the third time.
According to the statement, Minister of Defence Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky stressed at a ceremony held at the Siauliai airbase in Lithuania that the active participation in the Baltic airspace policing mission is both a huge responsibility and an honour, which clearly demonstrates the high level of preparedness of the Hungarian Defence Forces.
“As a leading nation, we are now receiving the symbolic keys to a task that plays a key role in the lives and security of the citizens of the Baltic States and in the history of NATO. Moreover, due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Baltic airspace has become one of the most sensitive airspaces in Europe, where our soldiers are now representing Hungary and the Hungarian nation under the Hungarian flag, in the uniform of the Hungarian Defence Forces, under NATO subordination”,
the statement quoted the Minister as saying.
Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that “we politicians also feel the weight of the task and the even greater responsibility of the mission: therefore I thank the citizens of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with great respect for their trust in us, Hungarians, to guard their airspace at such a sensitive moment”.
