Lieutenant General Ferenc Kajári
14:33 May 9, 2023Lieutenant General Ferenc Kajári was born on 5th July 1967 in Budapest, Hungary. He is married to Veronika and has a daughter and a son.
Upon graduating from the military secondary school, he joined the Kossuth Lajos Military College of the Hungarian Defence Forces in 1985. He commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1988 with an armoured reconnaissance officer degree and a general engineer degree.
Between 1988 and 1996, Major General Kajári served in various Infantry Brigades and MI positions as a platoon leader, company commander, S2 staff officer and Brigade S2.
In 1996, he was assigned to the Hungarian Engineer Contingent of IFOR and served as an S2 and liaison officer in the staff. On completion of his deployment, his career continued at the Ministry of Defence, where he served in a number of positions, most notably as the Aide-de-Camp to the Deputy State Secretary for NATO Integration. In 1998 he was selected to deploy in one of the newly established Partnership for Peace staff positions, and was assigned to the Headquarters of SACLANT, where he served in the PfP staff element until Hungary’s NATO accession in 1999 when he repositioned to serve in the Education and Training Department until his return to Hungary in 2001.
From 2001 he was serving in different staff positions at the J2 Directorate of the Hungarian Defence Forces. In the same year he enrolled to the National Defence University, and in 2004 earned his Master’s degree in military leadership.
In 2004 he deployed to Darfur as an EU representative and Military Observer of the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS), where by the second half of his tour he organised the S2 section in his sector and became the sector S2 chief. In 2007 he deployed to Afghanistan, where he served as the first Hungarian Chief CJ2, ACOS in RC-North of ISAF.
Between 2014 and 2015 he attended the General Staff Course of the National University of Public Service, where he earned the “ZRÍNYI Award” of the class of 2015.
In 2016 he was appointed as the director of the Military National Security Service Intelligence Directorate. In 2017 he was promoted to Brigadier General, and in 2021 to Major General, and in 2023 to Lieutenant General.
2021 marks his most noted tour as he was selected and deployed to the position of Commander of the NATO mission KFOR until the hand-over in 2022 when he continued his service as the director of the Military National Security Service Intelligence Directorate until his promotion to which took up to his new assignment to Deputy Chief of Defence Staff on 8th May 2023
![BAP_nyitó](https://defence.hu/media/cache/width_465/images/media/638612670d9dc136522802.jpg)
Hungarian fighter pilots rescued from Baltic Sea
15:08 November 29, 2022
For the first time, the nominated personnel of the HDF 59th Dezső Szentgyörgyi Air Base were involved in an open-sea search and rescue exercise, conducted with the participation of Hungarian airmen serving in the lead nation role of the Baltic Air Policing mission and the members of the Polish detachment, which is to rotate them out on 1 December. The rescue was part of a multinational search and rescue (SAR) exercise coordinated and organized by the Lithuanian air force and navy, in which two fighter pilots from each of the two nations and their own observer teams played the main role.
![portugál_nyitó](https://defence.hu/media/cache/width_465/images/media/638611a39d42f073900184.jpg)
Consultation between Hungarian and Portuguese defence policy directors
15:04 November 29, 2022
On 25 November, Deputy State Secretary for Defence Policy László Hajnik received Portuguese National Defence Policy Director Paulo Lourenço on a working visit in Budapest.
![PSOCC_nyitó](https://defence.hu/media/cache/width_465/images/media/6386102451431569109227.jpg)
Peacekeepers from twelve nations receive certifications
14:58 November 29, 2022
Organized by the HDF Peace Support Training Centre, the 6th Peace Support Operations Cooperation Course (PSOCC) has recently ended. The course participants received their certificates on 25 November.
![Lengyelország_nyitó](https://defence.hu/media/cache/width_465/images/media/63860eda21388850176152.jpg)
Successful validation in Poland
14:52 November 29, 2022
The standby service of the European Union was preceded by several training events, following which the soldiers had to prove their combat readiness on Exercise Common Challenge 2022.
![MH BTKK Brüsszel (nyitó)](https://defence.hu/media/cache/width_465/images/media/637f9d494816c898172807.jpg)
PSTC delegation in Brussels
17:34 November 24, 2022
A delegation from the Hungarian Defence Forces Peace Support Training Centre (HDF PSTC) attended the annual Commandants’ Conference (CC) of the NATO Partnership Training and Education Centres (PTEC) and the subsequent trade exhibition (PTEC Marketplace) in Brussels on 14–16 November.
![BAP (nyitó)](https://defence.hu/media/cache/width_465/images/media/637f9c11f188f904551192.jpg)
Baltic Air Policing – at degrees below zero as well
17:29 November 24, 2022
The Hungarian BAP detachment stationed in Lithuania didn’t have to wait long for the first snow. In the third week of November, Šiauliai and its environs – including the airbase – got covered with a centimeters-thick snow blanket. The snowing was followed by temperatures below zero for several days, even dropping to minus 13 degrees Celsius at night on the coldest ones.
![Puma_nyitó](https://defence.hu/media/cache/width_465/images/media/637f8bd36fe77861627744.jpg)
Puma 2022 – with Hungarian participation
16:19 November 24, 2022
The military exercise Puma 2022 was organized with the participation of the Visegrád Four countries in the training areas of Deba and Lipa, Poland, in early November.
![észt_1](https://defence.hu/media/cache/width_465/images/media/637f8b0215cec284253886.jpg)
Hungarian Gripens above Estonia as well
16:16 November 24, 2022
Necessitated by the war in Ukraine, safeguarding the airspace of the three NATO ally Baltic countries is more important than ever, and this year’s is already the third occasion when the air force of the Hungarian Defence Forces participates in the Baltic Air Policing mission, this time as a lead nation – this was said at a discussion between Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky and Raul Toomas, Estonia’s ambassador in Budapest on Monday, 21 November.
![23](https://defence.hu/media/cache/width_465/images/media/637b735ee7e13648105103.jpg)
Commander of Hungarian Defence Forces visits Pakistani defence exhibition
13:46 November 21, 2022
This year the International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) was organized at Karachi Export Centre, Pakistan between 15 and 18 November. Lieutenant General Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi PhD, Commander, Hungarian Defence Forces paid a visit to the exhibition together with Major General Dr. László Sticz, Commander, HDF Force Modernization and Transformation Command and Colonel István Ocskay, Director, Institute for Modernization, HDF Force Modernization and Transformation Command.
![22](https://defence.hu/media/cache/width_465/images/media/6377713f4010a332589835.jpg)
Commander of KFOR visits Camp Novo Selo
12:48 November 18, 2022
Major General Angelo Michele Ristuccia, the commander of the KFOR mission recently paid a visit to the HDF KFOR Tactical Reserve Battalion (KTRBN) stationed in Camp Novo Selo. The aim of the COM KFOR’s visit was to obtain a comprehensive picture of the functioning of the Hungarian battalion and the camp.