CIMIC in the Italian and Hungarian Ways

The CIMIC servicemen of both nations’ armed forces are members of the Multinational CIMIC Group (MNCG) which was established in 2009. Apart from the Hungarians and the Italians, the six-nation group consists of personnel from Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and Romania.

The MNCG is a multinational NATO CIMIC specialized unit projected for the full spectrum of civil-military cooperation at tactical and operation levels in peace support and crisis response operations (PSO/CRO). For this reason, the lead nation, i.e. Italy conducts a CREVAL every year to evaluate how a given nation trains its troops for reaching the required level of combat readiness.

On 2 December a delegation from the MNCG lead nation visited the HDF Civil-Military Cooperation and Psychological Operations Centre. Besides the CREVAL, the aim of the visit was to hold a professional consultation. The meeting was opened by Col. Csaba Szilágyi, the commander of the unit. As he said, he was pleased to have the opportunity for a professional discussion and exchange of experiences, which are indispensable for international units.

During the discussions, the Hungarians introduced the guests to the structure and capabilities of a 10-strong Hungarian CIMIC group declared to the 2016 troop rotation of the NATO Response Force (NRF). In what followed, the visitors inspected the readiness level of the personnel and technical equipment of the HDF CIMIC and PSYOPS Centre.

Photos by the author