Dragon Fire and Hail of Arrows on the Range

Hail of Arrows 2011 – this was the name of the exercise held between September 19 and 23 for the anti-armor crews of two infantry brigades of the Hungarian Defence Forces and the HDF 25/88 Airmobile Battalion. The troops of Tata, Debrecen, Hódmezővásárhely and Szolnok used the anti-tank guided weapons (ATGWs) in service with the Hungarian Defence Forces to destroy the designated targets.

Altogether 280 troops participated in the exercise from the Tata unit, who arrived by 60 vehicles in six columns from Tata to the area of Öskü on September 20. After the LFX held on the next day, they had to negotiate a terrain sector contaminated with chemical agents. In what followed, the specialists of the HDF 93rd ‘Petőfi Sándor’ CBRN Defence Battalion decontaminated the “contaminated" personnel and vehicles. In the morning of Thursday, September 22 the military columns set out on a long-distance driving practice to return to Tata.

Already at their home station, the Tata troops are going to commence training for a number of new missions abroad, as they are scheduled to provide the bulk of the HUN PRT and the OMLT staffs in Afghanistan and of the KFOR contingent in Kosovo. The designation of the contingent commanders is in progress, and before long the composition will be determined of these HDF contingents to deploy with the missions abroad.