Honore et disciplina – With honor and discipline

Honore et disciplina, that is, with honor and discipline – for one and a half decades now, this motto has been guiding the functioning of the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine. “The organization stands in the centre of NATO’s transformation and serves as its knowledge hub in military medicine, connecting the experts of member and partner countries” – emphasized MoD Deputy State Secretary for Force Development and Defence Policy Dr. Zsolt Kutnyánszky in his welcome address.

“The centre strengthens our collective capabilities, which is indispensable for tackling the challenges in contemporary complex operational environments. Therefore, this institution is of strategic importance not only for NATO but also for us, Hungarians as the proud host nation” – recalled Dr. Zsolt Kutnyánszky. He underlined that by attending the courses of the centre, the medical personnel of the Hungarian Defence Forces have acquired essential knowledge, which they have already been able to utilize on several different multinational exercises.

Such exercises included, among others, the NATO-framed whole-of-government joint country defence Exercise Adaptive Hussars 2025, and also Vigorous Warrior 2024. The latter is NATO’s only exercise focused on military medicine, which involved 1600 troops from 35 nations last year. “This multinational effort has also demonstrated that cooperation and interoperability are indispensable for saving lives and for strengthening the resilience of the Alliance” – added the MoD Deputy State Secretary for Force Development and Defence Policy.

In the final part of his welcome address, he recalled that the NATO MILMED COE continues to play a central role in the life and the functioning of the Alliance. The “moment of change” accompanying the change of command does not stop newly emerging challenges, which can be tackled only with collective efforts.

“You cannot achieve anything without a good team, so this is what I would like to say thanks for in the first place” – emphasized Colonel Dr. (MD) László Fazekas, the outgoing commander of the NATO MILMED COE in his speech. He expressed his appreciation and gratitude to the nations forming the centre, the partner countries, the personnel of the centre as well as their families.

He recalled that three years before, when he had taken over the commander’s position, Hungary was just past the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russo-Ukrainian war had already been going on for months, so these developments significantly determined the strategic tasks of the centre in the beginnings. Thus, over the years, the organization has become a premier unit in the sharing and analysis of lessons learned and identified within the Alliance.

“I am privileged and deeply honored that I had been the director in the past three years. I was able to realize all my goals which I set three years ago” – pointed out Colonel Dr. (MD) László Fazekas. Every year, the MILMED COE provided further training for some 500 persons, tested several concepts in practice – Exercise Vigorous Warrior 2024 was among one of their most important embodiments – and developed a new item of medical equipment.

This is the Near Real Time Surveillance (NRTS) tool, which serves to collect data about epidemics, biological threats and other medical contingencies. Its successful use has already been tested in a medical subsystem of KFOR.

“These results are fantastic, so please continue going down this road. I wish my successor every success in realizing all his goals during his command tenure” – this was how Colonel Dr. (MD) László Fazekas closed his speech.

In his welcome address, Brigadier General Dr. (MD) Jens Diehm said that as he had been paying attention to the extraordinary development of the MILMED COE from the beginnings, he feels that filling the commander’s position is almost like coming home. “The solid basis established so far enables us not only to keep the good but also to identify the better and go for the best” – emphasized in his speech the new German commander of the NATO MILMED COE.

“Our environment is continuously changing and although we are not always required to invent new solutions, tools or procedures, the technological characteristics in the field of medicine are developing at an extremely fast pace, which we must respect. Besides, the security environment is continuously and significantly changing due to new weapon technologies, forms of warfare and tactical procedures. We will be focusing on this in order to ensure that we do not merely keep up with the events but be a step ahead of them if possible” – this was how Brigadier General Dr. (MD) Jens Diehm summarized his vision of the future of the centre.