PM Orbán spends a lot of money on weapons: what is he up to?
While the budget is in serious trouble, money continues to pour in for arms purchases. However, even the best weapons are worthless without a concept. Does this concept even exist? Or maybe just nobody talks about it? What is the government led by PM Orbán planning?
Military development
As we know from the report of mfor.hu, the Hungarian government has been spending a significant amount of money on arms. Most of us could argue about what fields and sectors would need financial support from the government. However, in a representative democracy, we do not have a say directly. The Hungarian government decided that in the next year’s budget, defence will be given a prominent place among the state’s objectives. Expenditure on the Defence Fund, which is largely devoted to development, will increase by 55 percent. Mihály Varga, Minister of Finance of Hungary, explained this in the following way:
In times of war, Hungary needs a budget that guarantees security, protects families, pensions, and jobs, and cuts utility prices. That is why the focus of next year’s budget is on strengthening energy security and defence.
Reasoning
The fact is, there is a war going on in our neighbourhood. Everywhere in the world, including the EU, there are plans to spend much more on defence. NATO expects member states to spend at least two percent of their GDP on defence. To develop the capabilities of a military force in a complex way, you need a lot of very expensive equipment. However, spending a lot of money alone is far from guaranteeing that these capabilities will realise. Even if we look at just one piece of equipment, buying it is only a small part of the whole story: you need spare parts, maintenance, trained operators, fuel, etc. To make it all come together, we need to think decades ahead and make responsible, well thought-out and professionally sound decisions.
Realistic goals
There are many concerns when it comes to Hungary‘s military force. What chances does a small country have that is not outstanding in terms of economic performance either? PM Orbán and other Hungarian politicians would agree that the individual goal of the Hungarian Defence Forces is defence. When we talk about defence, we should not have high expectations of a heroic fight. The realistic objective must therefore be something that, for a state the size of Hungary, would make a potential attack so costly for the aggressor that it would discourage it. What do we need to achieve this? Plenty of small arms, shoulder-launched rockets, and easy-to-use artillery. In general, weapons that do not require years of training.
But what concept does the Hungarian government envisage for the development of the armed forces? We do not know. The relevant documents, in particular the long-term strategic force development plan and the medium-term defence policy programme, are not public. In 2011, the government led by PM Orbán decided to keep this data secret for 30 years. The only thing that the government shared is that by the year 2026, Hungary will have a world-class heavy, medium and light brigade.
Maybe they want a well armed army in the case that they loose the next election. Maybe. Trump would have done. Putin has done it. Who else is our PM friends with?
How about the Regan philosophy “Peace through strength”.
That’s Reagan not Regan. The quote is wrong as well.
Hungary, for 30 years, failed to properly fund its national defense, depending on NATO to protect the Country. After the war started next door in Ukraine they suddenly realized that they need to spend more money on defense because NATO is not going to send its soldiers to fight and die for a country that refuses to spend adequately for its defense. The fact is that the current active Hungarian military of 22,000 is completely inadequate to defend the country. Nearly 25% of the “manpower” is female. Anyone who believes that males and females are interchangeable on the battlefield is an idiot. Right now most of the weapons are still from the prior century. Purchasing 55 modern tanks and 12 modern fixed wing combat aircraft will not do anything to improve the situation. In the Ukraine war these kind of weapons and numbers are lost in combat in less than a week. Hungary needs a much larger military and a lot more modern weapons than they purchased so far and it is going to cost a lot more money.
It’s great that Hungary is strengthening its’ military for defence. If we are going to have a defence we need to know what the military threat to Hungary is and how we plan to defend ourselves in concert with our allies. The plans that are drafted are completely secret. Could we please have the Orban Government at least state for the record which large country to the east is the threat to Hungary and the rest of Eastern Europe? You know, those guys who occupied Hungary for 46 years.