General Dr. Gábor Böröndi
16:43 May 2, 2023G e n e r a l G á b o r B Ö R Ö N D I P h D .
Chief of Defence Staff - Hungarian Defence Forces
Born in Kaposvár on 6th April 1971, General Gábor Böröndi PhD. is married with three children. Having graduated at Kossuth Lajos Military Academy in 1992, as a mechanized infantry officer, he was posted to the 26th Mechanized Infantry Brigade in Lenti, where he served as the Platoon Leader, Company Commander and Battalion Executive Officer in consecutive order. In 1996, on leaving Lenti to his new position at the 4th Mechanized Division Command, located in Székesfehérvár, he began his studies at the Faculty of Law at the University of Miskolc and graduated in 2001.
Beginning in 1997, he was deployed to the UNFICYP HQ as OPS officer for a one-year period. His career continued at the Ministry of Defence (Budapest) between 1999 and 2006. During this phase, he was promoted to Major, then Lieutenant Colonel and finally Colonel reaching the position of Head of Department of Defence Planning through the position of the Head Secretariat of State Secretary. He served his second tour in 2002 when deployed to SFOR MSU as LNO. In 2003, he was selected to deploy as the first Hungarian soldier in Afghanistan to ISAF HQ as J-3 OPS officer. For a brief time, by utilizing his own experiences gained abroad, he led the PSO Department of the Operations Command Centre of the Hungarian Defence Forces.
In 2007, he was assigned to be the Deputy Commander of the 5th Bocskai István Infantry Brigade, located in Debrecen. The same year, he started his 2nd tour in Afghanistan at the ISAF HQ as HUN NMR. In 2009, he took over the Commander position of the 5th Bocskai István Light Infantry Brigade. He was appointed to be the Chief of Land Forces (Deputy Commander) of the Joint Force Command of the Hungarian Defence Forces in 2013. In 2017, he completed his studies at the National War College of National Defence University in Washington, USA. From 2018 as Major General, he served as the Chief J-3, (Deputy Chief of Defence for Operations) General Staff of the Hungarian Defence Forces until his appointment to Deputy Commander of the Hungarian Defence Forces (DCHOD) with the rank of Lieutenant General, in 2019.
In the summer of 2021, he was appointed to the Military Representative of Hungary to the NATO and EU, which took up to his new assignment to Hungarian Chief of Defence Staff on 4th May 2023. On the recommendation of the Minister of Defence he was promoted to the rank of General on 20th August 2023. Between 2017-2021, he was responsible for developing the Digital Soldier Program while he was the Military Supervisor of the Zrínyi Defence and Military Development Program.
General Böröndi’s national and international decorations and awards, among numerous, including the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic Knight’s Cross, the Order of Merit of France and the Legion of Merit of The United States of America.
Cohesion is the key to mission success
11:07 April 9, 2026
“Led by the contingent commander, during your tour of duty abroad, you have formed a cohesive unit with members attentive to and assuming responsibility for each other, where all soldiers knew that they can count on their comrades if in need” – said Colonel Tibor Gaspor, Deputy Commander, HDF 1st Armored Brigade at the homecoming ceremony of the 33rd rotation of the HDF KFOR Contingent (KFOR-33 HUNCON, KFOR Tactical Reserve Battalion – KTRBN) on 2 April.
HDF KFOR 34th Rotation at the FMC Evaluation
11:46 April 8, 2026
The soldiers of the Hungarian Defence Forces (HDF) KFOR Contingent 34th rotation, who arrived in early March, have successfully completed their Full Mission Capability (FMC) evaluation. The results of the exercise confirm that the troops are ready to execute mission tasks and are prepared to handle unexpected situations quickly and effectively.
Colonel Dr. Levente Várhelyi receives prestigious international recognition
12:15 April 7, 2026
President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella recently awarded Colonel Dr. Levente Várhelyi PhD one of the highest state decorations of Italy, the knight’s title “Cavaliere” for his cooperation with Italian military medical institutions and the popularization of Italian trauma surgery procedures in Hungary. The colonel received the medal – the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic awarded for outstanding political, artistic, economic or social performance – from Italy’s ambassador to Hungary Giuseppe Scognamiglio. The recognition confirms Colonel Dr. Várhelyi’s decades-long professional performance and dedication on an international level.
Strong American-Hungarian Alliance
12:11 April 7, 2026
“Strong bonds between the United States and Hungary are especially important to us within the field of national defence. The development of the Hungarian Defence Forces, the significance of our NATO engagement and the mutual security policy cooperation are all fields where the United States is our indispensable partner”, wrote Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky on his social media page on 7 April, a few hours before Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Budapest.
We protect Hungary’s energy security under all circumstances
11:11 April 7, 2026
“The energy security of the Hungarian people is no toy! The Hungarian Defence Forces are ready to fully carry out their tasks laid out in the Fundamental Law of Hungary. The reinforcement of guard and security personnel at national critical energy infrastructure started weeks ago. The military has complemented it by reinforcing the protection of the Hungarian section of the pipeline system, based on information received from Serbia” – said Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky in a video message uploaded to his social media page on 6 April.
Personnel Recovery in Tempest
13:02 April 2, 2026
Three weeks spent in an uninhabited forested area, at most a couple hours of sleep on end, food deprivation for up to several days, shelter-building from one own’s equipment, water purification, practical shooting, close quarters combat – this is how Charlie, the top-level course in Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training can be summed up in a few words. During the course, Hungarian soldiers practiced air extraction in Csobánka on 30 March.
Tuned to Exercise
12:17 April 2, 2026
Preparation for Exercise Moonstar 2026 is still going on at the Hajdúhadház-based Vay Ádám Training and Exercise Area and Shooting Range. Reservists of the 5th Territorial Defence Battalion of the HDF 2nd Territorial Defence Regiment participated in a three-day training program to improve their marksmanship skills.
They have returned home from Bosnia and Herzegovina
12:09 April 2, 2026
“The performance you gave during your tour of duty abroad well exemplifies Hungarian military expertise and camaraderie” – this was how Brigadier General Zsolt Molnár praised the homecoming personnel of the 29th rotation of the HDF EUFOR Contingent. At their homecoming ceremony held in Szentes, the Depuy Commander (Land) of the HDF Joint Force Command (HDF JFC) handed over recognitions to soldiers returning home from their service in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Preparing for collective defence on Exercise Loyal Leda 2026
12:27 March 31, 2026
A significant number of Hungarian soldiers participated in NATO’s multinational Exercise Loyal Leda 2026, which served the operational training of the corps headquarters of the Alliance. Held between 3–12 March in the areas of nine allied member nations, the training event was controlled by the NATO Joint Force Training Centre located in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Target Destroyed
11:24 March 31, 2026
The crews of the 1st Grenadier Battalion’s 2nd company of the HDF 30th Mechanized Infantry Brigade have recently been forged on combat-like live fire exercises (LFX). The company had to react to enemy targets with its own crews according to the tactical situation, both day and night.