In blue smoke, through a window…

Once Russian soldiers and their families lived in the outer environs of Tótvázsony, but today the only remainders are the empty blocks of flats in the so-called “Little Moscow”. As part of the 24 October scenario, this abandoned housing estate was designated as the Milano base of the fictitious enemy forces. By the operational order, the FIBUA phase of the mission was preceded by regrouping and area occupation, which was followed by the closing phase of the 72-hour combat action, the repulsion and destruction of the enemy.

Under the scenario, the hostile Milano base is located in an inhabited area, therefore the soldiers had to secure the spot by advancing from house to house. The battle group had a hard time indeed, as the enemy forces wanted to hold the base at all costs, it being the only place where they were able to defend their main line of communication.

During the exercise, apart from the training audience doing their best, the evaluators are also striving to obtain the most precise results possible. Lieutenant Colonel Szabolcs Rácz, Deputy Commander, HDF 11th Motorized Infantry Brigade told us that the use of the MILES system makes evaluation much easier.

“On exercises like this, we are working to use all training support aids so that the execution can be as realistic as possible. The essence of the MILES system is the release of a laser pulse from a module or system mounted on the weapon, which makes a beeping noise when hitting a sensor worn by the soldier, indicating that the soldier has been hit. This makes it easy to establish that the soldier on exercise would have been injured or died in a real-life situation” – he added. In answer to our question, the lieutenant colonel said that the Hungarian-led battle group is drawn from the 39th infantry battalion of the brigade, and also consists of Italian, Croatian and Turkish subunits. Moreover, it was augmented with American troops for the duration of the exercise.