Renewing operational procedures for collective security

Colonel Zoltán Bárány emphasized that the Russo-Ukrainian War and the Israel-Gaza conflict well exemplify the increasing threats to security, the society and the economy. Speaking about the course – which is co-organized by the HDF Transformation Command, the Allied Command Transformation (ACT) based in Norfolk, VA, USA and the Brussels-headquartered NATO Standardization Office (NSO) – Colonel Bárány pointed out that it is vital to the armed forces of all nations that their soldiers precisely understand the common operational procedures. As he said, this may even become a question of life and death in multinational operations, because the cooperating participants have diverse equipment and training backgrounds.

The commander of the HDF Transformation Command emphasized that the Hungarian Defence Forces attach outstanding significance to doctrine development, which forms the basis of the modernization of the national armed forces. He added that the currently ongoing military development program not only means the renewal of technology but also demands the establishment of new procedures in the interest of the effective cooperation between old and new systems. This, in turn, necessitates the development of several new military doctrines. He concluded by saying that “This course teaches how to professionally write doctrines meeting NATO standards”.

Colonel Bárány told us that the interest in the NATO Allied Joint Doctrine Development Course – which has been annually organized since 2018 – is continuously growing and the number of those wanting to sign up recently exceeded that of the available places. Due to the overapplication, last year the organizers doubled the quota. This outstanding interest is especially remarkable in the light of the fact that another two NATO member countries also run similar courses. Since 2023, the four-day Budapest course has been organized twice a year, in the spring and in the autumn.