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.