TISA Battalion Rated Excellent

The disaster relief exercise “BLONDE AVALANCHE 2011" concluded with a spectacular culmination exercise conducted along the bank of the River Tisza on the VIP day, Thursday, September 22. The soldiers of the participating nations making up the TISA Multinational Engineer Battalion demonstrated their state of readiness and high-level interoperability in a fictitious flood situation. The commander of the battalion was Lt.-Col. Ferenc Bátor.

The Hungarian leaders present at the VIP day included Gábor Márki, the MoD Deputy State Secretary for Defence Economy, Lt.-Gen. Zoltán Orosz, the Deputy Chief of the MoD Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. István Juhász, the Director of Staff of the MoD Defence Staff and Brig.-Gen. János Huszár, the Land Forces Chief of the HDF Joint Force Command. The armed forces of the cooperating nations were represented by Romanian Deputy Chief of Defence Lt.-Gen. Dr. Dan Ghica-Radu, Slovak Deputy Chief of Defence Lt.-Gen. Jaroslav Vy’vlek and Maj.-Gen. Bohdan Bondar, the Engineers Chief of the Ukrainian military.

The core purpose of the joint Hungarian–Romanian–Slovak–Ukrainian unit of the 700-strong TISA battalion is to provide assistance to the population and help with the consequence management efforts in case of floods over the catchment area of the River Tisza and of other natural/ecological disasters. The ad hoc military grouping comprising four engineer companies mounts a CPX each year, with the current host country providing the commander of the exercise.

This was the first time in the history of the battalion that the personnel demonstrated the full dynamics of the disaster relief process, along the lines the operation would be carried out in real life. Lt.-Gen. Zoltán Orosz assessed the exercise as excellent. The exercise director, Brig.-Gen. Dr. Gábor Böröndi, the commander of the HDF 5th ‘Bocskai István’ Infantry Brigade – the unit from where the “core personnel" of the TISA battalion is drawn –, was also highly satisfied with the demonstration.

Next year the battalion will go on exercise in Romania, in line with the principle of annual rotation among the nations. At the ENDEX Romanian Deputy Chief of Defence Lt.-Gen. Dr. Dan Ghica-Radu said that he had just experienced an exemplary cooperation among the troops, commanders and staffs of the participating nations, and went on praising the high standards of the Hungarian module.