Hungary’s security increases with each new item of equipment

“Hungary has taken a step in time! It is huge that now, when a war has been raging in our neighborhood already for two years, we can see our items of equipment arriving continuously in Hungary. Besides its innumerable terrible effects, the war also prevented the equipment being made in factories and their component parts from being delivered to new customers” – pointed out the minister of defence about the significance of the modern equipment pool that has been continuously expanding as a result of the military development program launched in 2015.

“Hungary’s security increases with each new item of equipment” – underscored Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, adding that “bearing the name of a beautiful, old Hungarian horse breed, the Gidráns are our deservedly well-known and popular assets.” In the last few days, the equipment pool of the heavy brigade expanded with two Leopard 2A7HU main battle tanks, which the minister also mentioned as an important step forward. “We are proud of these combat behemoths, which are among the state-of-the-art tanks due to their 72-ton weight, 73 km/h speed and 450 km range” – pointed out the minister of defence, who noted that the procurement of these items of equipment and their entering into service are essential for rebuilding the tank and artillery capabilities of the Hungarian Defence Forces.

“We are building a very important capability” – emphasized Colonel István Tóth, Commander, HDF 1st Armored Brigade while speaking about the procurements of equipment. As he pointed out, the soldiers of the infantry battalion have been using the Gidrán tactical vehicles for months during their training, as next year they will be placed on standby in an EU battle group with the ten vehicles available to them. In the field of artillery capability, the training of the personnel for the use of the new equipment has also been going on continuously since the first large-scale enlistment in this February.

“The building of artillery capability is one of the distinguished tasks of the brigade. This is a very complex system, as we need various configurations of Gidráns – such as the surveillance and reconnaissance platform, the fire control centres and the command and control centers – to be able to precisely and efficiently deliver fire with the PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers.”

The military equipment pool of the brigade will keep expanding in the future, too: among others, it expects several of the still missing 18 units of Leopard 2A7HU main battle tanks to be delivered in the year 2025.