Exercise series Adaptive Hussars continues – this year without troop movements

Since its start in 2023 as a classic military exercise, Adaptive Hussars has grown into a national- and system-level crisis management model that organically fits into NATO’s defence plans” – pointed out General Dr. Gábor Böröndi. He added that the analysis of lessons learned is at least as important as the exercise itself – for this reason, this year’s main objective is to integrate the knowledge gained during last year’s training event, which was conducted on a scale unprecedented since the 1989 regime change. “Through the forward-looking changes that were determined at that time, we can make military planning, command and control even more efficient” – he emphasized.

Since 2023, the training event involves military movements every second year, while in the interim years, the focus is on the training of staffs. Accordingly, this year the soldiers are perfecting the national defence mechanisms and running a full-scale test of the system of command and control, working almost “invisibly” within the framework of a computer-assisted command post exercise (CAX-CPX) in classified rooms with classified equipment, processing and adopting the lessons learned during the conduct of last year’s exercise. 

The Chief of Defence pointed out that the primary objective of the exercise series Adaptive Hussars is to test the readiness and capabilities of the Hungarian Defence Forces and to practice them on a complex, joint force level in accordance with NATO’s defence plans.

“In line with this, we are running this year’s exercise concurrent with Exercise Steadfast Deterrence 26”, which presents challenges to NATO’s military plans across the whole Euro-Atlantic region, in accordance with its objectives and processes. Through Hungary’s participation in the joint training event of 32 member states, we demonstrate that besides the national line, we are also committed to collective defence” – he added.

The 2025 edition of Adaptive Hussars was the most important, complex and biggest exercise of the Hungarian Defence Forces in several decades. They held a complete country defence simulation that involved the decision-making processes of the civilian public administration system and almost all units of the armed forces , while NATO capabilities appeared in the area of Hungary as well.

“Last year we demonstrated that the procurements meeting the highest standards and the related preparation, training and control are in harmony and produced visible results. We received all the necessary feedback concerning the adaptation capabilities of the Hungarian Defence Forces, the cohesion of subunits and last but not least the efficiency and interoperability of the reserve system. We have laid a solid basis, but there’s always room for improvement, and that’s what we are aiming at this year” – said the chief of the HDF Defence Staff.

Press release of the HDF Defence Staff