Visit of the American Vice Director for Joint Training at the HDF General Staff

The American delegation was received at a courtesy call by Major General Dr. István Szabó, Deputy Chief of Staff for Coordination on Tuesday, May 8. Subsequently, at a plenary, led by Brigadier General Zoltán Apáti, the Chief of the General Staff Training Directorate, the topical issues of the bilateral relations were reviewed. The American counterpart gave a presentation about the structure and the system of tasks of the US Joint Force Development Directorate J7.

During the session a lecture was delivered on the operations and theatre analysis method, the education and training system of the Hungarian Defence Forces (HDF), as well as the perspectival capability development and the lessons learned and analysis system of the HDF. A special emphasis was laid on the bilateral development of personnel recovery (PR), and the examination of the related cooperation prospects. Besides these the American delegation got brief glimpses into the activity of the HDF General Staff Scientific Research Centre.

As a part of the program, the members of the delegation participate in an international conference “National resilience: Opportunities and Challenges in a Changing Security Environment", to be held by the HDF Military Augmentation, Preparation an Training Command on May 9-10, where Lieutenant Colonel David Doran, the member of the delegation also gives a presentation. One of the success areas of the bilateral Hungarian-American force development cooperation is the operations research, in the framework of which the American side has already several times delegated lecturers and participants to Hungary for the conferences organised in this topic.

Following the conference, the delegation concludes its official program with a visit to the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine (MILMED COE).