SOF troops to undergo SOFEVAL

The multinational Special Operations Air Task Group (SOATG) consisting of forces of five nations (SOATG – Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia) and the Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) have deployed to the civilian airport of Sármellék so that they can obtain the Mission Capable rating from NATO evaluators.

The guard and security duties of the airport are being performed by the reservists of the HDF 5th Territorial Defence Regiment. The reservists – who had earlier been trained by the SOF troops – are manning a checkpoint where they search vehicles and persons, while additionally carrying out external and internal patrol duties in the area of the dual-use (military/civil) airport.

The Special Operations Forces of the Hungarian Defence Forces have become first in the region to undergo, as lead nation, the strict NATO validation called Special Operations Forces Evaluation (SOFEVAL).

“According to the simulated situation, we are deployed somewhere where something major has happened. There will be a lot of events, counter-insurgency (COIN) operations, irregular threats, and the groups are going to respond collectively to every threat. One of the most important things is the command and control (C2) net for communication with the higher command” – said a captain of the Slovenian SOF from the personnel of a Special Operations Air Task Unit (SOATU).

Colonel Péter Simon, Commander, HDF Special Operations Command added that “the evaluator team will be assessing very precisely whether the SOATGs and SOTGs can demonstrate the capabilities meeting NATO defence plans at a level which enable them to achieve the Mission Capable rating. Since, hopefully, the two groups will be declared Mission Capable here, in Sármellék, we cannot sit back – on the contrary, we are speeding up. The nations deployed here will be joined by Austria and Croatia, too, so together, with the participation of seven nations, we will set up the headquarters of the Regional Special Operations Component Command (R-SOCC) in Szolnok.”

As the R-SOCC is a joint command, it must be able to lead the forces in a decentralized way characteristic of special operations, by coordinating them on the ground, on water and in the air – and in a given case, simultaneously in multiple areas of operations.

Deployability is very important as well. This is because a stationery command would be exposed to the long-distance strike capability of the opponent, and the enemy’s SOF units operating behind the forward line of own troops. For this reason, in a given case, commands must be immediately ready to redeploy – while the control of operations must not stop for a moment.

NATO and the national evaluators will assess not only whether the R-SOCC is capable of commanding and controlling decentralized special operations, but also whether it can maintain this capability.

The lessons learned in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict and earlier wars show that stationary command elements are worthless in an army. Commands must be capable of redeploying very quickly in line with the theatre of war and the threat level. Therefore, special attention must be paid to counter-drone capabilities and to the headquarters’ ability to pack up at short notice and redeploy to a site where it can assume command again.

“Redeploying a headquarters is not so simple, so we are setting up forward command posts while the HQ is being redeployed. During this time, we will be exercising operational control from the forward command posts, since soldiers can never be left without control in a theatre of war” – said Colonel Péter Simon. The NATO SOFEVAL of Headquarters Regional Special Operations Component Command will take place in late October.

“I am proud to see that our NATO allies trust us to the extent that they can line up behind the Hungarian SOF leaders to conduct very high-risk and serious operations under the command of our R-SOCC in defence of our countries” – emphasized Colonel Simon.