Major General Zoltán Somogyi
15:53 July 18, 2023Brigadier General Zoltán Somogyi was born on 27th February 1974 in Fehérgyarmat. He began his military service in August 1992 at the Military Command Collage in Szentendre. He graduated as an artillery officer with a BSc in Land Surveying Engineering in 1996. He served 8 years in a various artillery officer assignments including 4 years as Battery Commander within the HDF 5th Mechanized Infantry Brigade 5th Self Propelled Artillery Battalion in Debrecen. During his artillery officer carrier, he successfully completed the Battery Commander Course of the German Bundeswehr and gathered experiences also in the field of rocket artillery. In 2003 he was deployed to the position of the 2nd Company Commander of the Hungarian Guard and Security Battalion, KFOR Kosovo and in 2004 he assumed command of the Hungarian Guard and Security Contingent, KFOR Skopje.
In 2007, he was appointed to the position of Hungarian Joint Force Command J3 Staff Officer in Székesfehérvár and he was promoted to Major. In 2009, he was assigned as a Liaison Officer to the German Operations Command in Potsdam and to the German MOD Planning Staff in Berlin focused on Hungarian contribution to ISAF operation. In 2010, he graduated from the National Defense University with MSc degree in Military Leadership. In 2012 he graduated the 7th German National Joint Admiral and General Staff Course at the Bundeswehr Command & Staff Collage in Hamburg. Following that, he was appointed to the position of the Military Assistant to the Chief of Land Forces of the Hungarian Joint Force Command and he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. From 2013 to 2016, he served as the Head of Combat Support Branch G3 HDF JFC.
During this assignment in 2013-2014 he was deployed for seven months to Afghanistan as a senior advisor and head of a brigade level advisory team. In 2016, he was assigned to the position of Chief G37 HDF Joint Force Command. In 2017, his next appointment was at HDF JFC where he held the post of Chief J3/ACOS Operations and was promoted to the rank of Colonel.
From August 2018 he started and led the planning project of Headquarters Multinational Division Centre. He was appointed to Chief of Staff of the Headquarters Multinational Division Centre on 01 June 2020 and he was promoted to his current rank on the 20th of August 2020.
12 May 2022 – 17 May 2023 he served as Chief of Staff of EUFOR Force HQ in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Since 15 July 2023 he has been assuming the position Director of the General Staff Hungarian Defence Forces.
He is married to his wife Beatrix and lives in Várpalota.
The Lynx fleet has expanded
10:47 August 8, 2025
Another Lynx KF-41 infantry fighting vehicle has arrived in Hódmezővásárhely, thus further increasing the combat strength of the Hungarian Defence Forces. The training programs needed to operate the armored fighting vehicle are continuously going on at the HDF 30th Mechanized Infantry Brigade.
Hungary and Slovakia continue to be strategic partners
10:02 August 8, 2025
On 6 August, Dr. Zsolt Kutnyánszky, MoD State Secretary for Force Development and Defence Policy received Slovak Deputy Defence Minister Igor Melicher at the annual meeting of the Hungarian–Slovak Joint Commission on Military, Security and Political Issues. During the meeting, it was reasserted that Hungary and Slovakia continue to be strategic partners in the field of defence.
In the depths of a glacial lake
16:12 August 6, 2025
The EOD divers of the HDF 1st EOD and Riverine Guard Regiment recently spent two weeks on the international diving exercise “EOD and Deep Dive Workshop 2025”, which was organized by the Bundeswehr for the first time. Germany’s fifth-largest glacial lake, the 127-meter-deep Lake Starnberg provided a varied environment for executing the tasks.
Guardians of the Sky
16:08 August 6, 2025
“You can rarely see them like this – the guardians of the sky are in the air. We are proud of the Hungarian Gripen pilots’ professional performance” – wrote Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky on his social media page. As of early August, the Hungarian Defence Forces are performing air policing duties in seven countries altogether, including the Baltic states and Hungary.
Strengthening Hungarian presence in the Western Balkans
13:03 August 6, 2025
Lieutenant General Ferenc Kajári, Deputy Chief of HDF Defence Staff paid an official visit to Kosovo on 5 August 2025. Within the framework of the program, he held discussions with Commander of KFOR Major General Enrico Barduani, and personally met the Hungarian troops serving in the region.
Hungarian experiences, international friendships
12:54 August 6, 2025
“What I enjoyed the most at the Bálna Defence Centre was shooting, because we tried it out together in my team” – said Andrei Neculoiu from Brasov, Romania on the Budapest sightseeing day of the International CLIMS Camp.
International CLIMS Camp 2025 in Hungary
13:10 August 5, 2025
Between 2 and 16 August, Hungary is hosting the international youth camp of the International Liaison Committee of Social Military Organizations (CLIMS). More than 200 15-17-year-old young people from twelve nations are learning about Hungary’s culture and sights while they are participating in team-building exercises and sports competitions, and develop their English proficiency. The 20th International CLIMS Camp (ICC) was opened by Brigadier General Dr. László Drót, Commander, HDF Territorial Defence and Military Augmentation Command in the Ludovika Arena of the Ludovika University of Public Service, Budapest.
Another deployment: The Hungarian Defence Forces extinguish fires in Bulgaria as well
11:08 August 5, 2025
The Hungarian Defence Forces recently participated with a H225M helicopter in containing wildfires raging in Bulgaria. A seven-strong contingent of the HDF 86th Helicopter Wing was fighting fires for three days in the area of Ploski and Ilindentsi. During their 26 flight hours, they landed on 20 occasions and scooped up water 146 times with the Bambi Buckets used for extinguishing, using up a total of 277,000 liters of water.
Screw by screw
10:58 August 5, 2025
Helicopters. Realizations of the fantasy of man eager to fly, products of engineering ingenuity. Marvel machines assembled from tens of thousands of components, screws and elements. The Airbus H225M rotorcraft of the Hungarian Defence Forces have arrived from France. They have undergone a thorough technical inspection before entering service.
Rotary-wing flying: from the factory to the training area
19:00 August 4, 2025
What does it take to put the brand new Airbus H225M helicopters into service? Viewers of our short film can follow the path of the last two homecoming H225M rotorcraft of the renewing air force of the Hungarian Defence Forces from the factory in France to Szolnok, Hungary.