2025 Will Be the Year of Breakthrough in the Hungarian Defence Forces as well

He said that 2025 will be the year of breakthrough in national defence as well; the processes will come to an end now, everything will fall into place and from peacetime armed forces, we will build a combat-ready force. This will be tested in the second half of the year during Exercise Adaptive Hussars 2025, NATO’s largest whole-of-government exercise, which, by mobilising the full spectrum of the HDF and the public administration, will prove the HDF’s progress from tactical level to operational level.

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky also told us that along with commissioning the new equipment, the organisational culture must also be developed. The generational change of commanders, the modification of the legal framework and the strengthening of military identity all served this purpose.

“Based on the lessons learned from modern battlefields, we can see that new capabilities are being generated, which we must get to know and build in the HDF, while we must continuously maintain our existing capabilities”, said the minister. He added that “this whole system cannot function without the Hungarian soldiers, therefore, we have also taken significant steps in the field of recruitment over the past few years.”

The minister also said that the number of reservists has grown significantly because since last summer, 4500 joined the HDF, and every tenth of them became professional soldiers. He emphasised that the financial and moral recognition of the Hungarian soldiers is of key importance to the government: since 2010, the average salary of the personnel has tripled, there were two-digit number increases in 2022 and 2024 and at the beginning of 2026, they will receive six months’ “weapon money” (service remuneration). In closing his speech, the minister pointed out that the entry of President Trump and his administration’s philosophy will bring changes to the whole world. This will result in an international environment favourable to the Hungarians, in which the pro-peace viewpoint represented by the government of Hungary will become the mainstream.