Quick Response 2024

Exercise Quick Response 2024 involved EUFOR’s entire personnel from 23 troop contributing nations, and was conducted with the logistic support of the armed forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AFBiH). As a novelty, this year’s exercise witnessed the activation of the over-the-horizon reserve forces, in the framework of which Hungarian, Austrian and Romanian sub-units arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina to join the permanent force of EUFOR. There were two Hungarian companies among the reserve forces, one of them is a stand-by company that arrived from Szentes, Hungary, and the other is a company of the KFOR Tactical Reserve Battalion (KTRBN), which was redeployed to the exercise from Novo Selo, Kosovo. As a consequence, the strength of the EUFOR Hungarian contingent multiplied for the time of the training event, with the vast majority of it consisting of “combat elements”, that is, the maneuver companies.

The activation of the reserve forces was followed by the Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration (RSOM-I) of the arriving troops, as well as military vehicles and equipment. Therefore, logistics was assigned a prominent role in the first phase of the exercise; besides, the newcomers were to undergo various training programs and brush-up sessions so they can smoothly integrate and be able to accomplish their tasks on the same level as EUFOR’s permanent in-theatre forces.

During the next phase, the maneuver forces occupied the staging areas assigned to them. Exercise Quick Response 2024 had another novelty in this regard, too, as besides the Temporary Staging Areas (TSAs) in the barracks of the AFBiH, this year EUFOR used a number of “field TSAs” for the first time, which are TSAs established under field circumstances. In this phase, with the help of the EUFOR Liaison Observation Teams (LOTs), the commanders of maneuver forces contacted the mayors as well as police and military leaders in their area of responsibility in order to get to know the characteristics, strengths and challenges of the given area.

In the most exciting phase of the exercise, EUFOR forces were “required to deploy” to several spots in the country, which was compressed into a short period of a couple of days. Their tasks ranged from reinforcing the security of ammunition, weapon and explosives storage sites or facilities of strategic importance (e.g. the Sarajevo International Airport), crowd riot control (CRC) activities handling violent protests or the evacuation of VIPs and injured personnel. All EUFOR troops conducted the exercise based on the rules of the UN mandate by high professional standards, acting as an impartial cohesive unit from the maneuver forces to the international and national support elements to the directing staff of the operation to the umpires planning and assessing the exercise, in a way that meanwhile they also carried out their everyday duties to full extent.

As one of the last phases of Exercise Quick Response 2024, the troops demonstrated their knowledge, skills and cooperativeness tested during the exercise on the Distinguished Visitors’ Day as well. The dynamic display carried out in front of the political and military leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the members of the diplomatic corps was followed by a march involving the vehicles of EUFOR nations – among them, two Gidrán tactical armored vehicles of the Hungarian Defence Forces deployed for this occasion – and the subsequent closing ceremony.

Following the display, Luigi Soreca, the recently appointed Special Representative of the European Union (EUSR) pointed out in a letter EUFOR’s professionalism, discipline and dedication, as well as the fact that once again, Exercise Quick Response 2024 has underscored EUFOR’s preparedness and commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina as the military part of the European Union’s integrated approach.

In COMEUFOR Major General László Sticz PhD’s assessment, Exercise Quick Response has been equally successful in each of its three dimensions, namely at the strategic, the operational and the tactical levels. According to the general, EUFOR has demonstrated again to the leaders and the population of the country that it is capable of accomplishing the tasks in its mandate at a high level. He added that during the exercise, the Hungarian contingent of outstanding personnel strength acted as a true cohesive unity, amalgamating maneuver, support and control forces, in-theatre and reserve subunits, land and air force elements, and thereby has demonstrated again that Hungary considers its role in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a mission of outstanding importance.