Country defence Exercise Adaptive Hussars 2025 shows guarantee of security of Hungarian people

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky highlighted that the whole-of-government, joint exercise demonstrates the full spectrum of the Hungarian Defence Forces’ capabilities.

The exercise is running within NATO framework with the participation of Croatian, Italian and Turkish troops besides the Hungarian ones, so the cooperation involves the armament types, communication systems and leadership practices of several nations.

The minister said that exercises covering the entire country like the present one have so far been unusual, even in NATO member countries. Not only the armed forces are involved, but local governments and public administration are also playing a role, “acting as if there were a state of war, and executing their tasks in this situation.”

He recalled that the exercise series started in 2023 with the name “Adaptive Hussars 2023”, and the lessons learned from it are now being utilized in the implementation of Exercise Adaptive Hussars 2025, an important stage in the development of the Hungarian Defence Forces.

He said that during the defence training exercise, “in defence of the state border, a major force is deployed in response to a hypothetical external armed attack against the country.” The joint exercise involves 22,000 persons, a significant portion of whom are reservists – he said, adding that the number of reservists has expanded by more than 40 percent in the last two or three years.

General Dr. Gábor Böröndi, Chief of HDF Defence Staff said that the things seen at the exercise are just a small segment of the capabilities of the Hungarian Defence Forces. The objective was to show how the air force, the land forces, the logistics and the SATCOM capability can cooperate.

According to him, the training audience of the exercise is demonstrating that as a strong member of NATO, the Hungarian Defence Forces are credible, equipped with modern technology and have well-trained personnel.

The press release on the spot reads as follows: in its stage organized in the vicinity of Hajmáskér, the exercise – which has been running since early September at several points around Hungary – simulated land and air operations. The reconnaissance forces used drones as well as rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft to identify enemy movements.

The press release adds that running until mid-October, the exercise series has outstanding significance, not only from the military but also from the international and security policy points of view.