Hungarian Chief of Defence Visits the United States

Dr. Tibor Benkő attended the annual senior commanders’ conference of the National Guard in Columbus, Ohio, and conducted talks with the Adjutant General of the Guard, Maj.-Gen. Deborah Ashenhurst. Lt.-Gen. Ljubisa Dikovic, the Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces was also invited to the meeting, as in recent years the Ohio National Guard extended to Serbia the bilateral State Partnership Program (SPP) it has maintained with the Hungarian Defence Forces for nearly 20 years. In cooperation with the ONG members, the HDF Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (HDF OMLT) is tasked with training and mentoring the troops of the Afghan National Army. In addition, the Guard – similarly to the national defence and volunteer defence brigades to be formed within the Hungarian Defence Forces – is a reservist-based organization. Sharing and analyzing the experience were also high on the agenda of the trilateral discussions.

During his visit the Chief of the MoD Defence Staff met with Senator Bill Beagle, the representative of Ohio’s 5th District. In what followed, Tibor Benkő traveled to Norfolk where he visited the NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT), one of the two strategic commands of the North Atlantic Alliance whose primary mission is to direct the military transformation of NATO and contribute to maintaining and developing military capabilities, making them more effective. Gen. Benkő held a staff meeting for the Hungarian troops serving there and their families to inform them about the commanders’ experience related to the transformation of the Hungarian Defence Forces.

The Hungarian CHoD paid a courtesy call to Gen. Stéphane Abrial, ACT Commander to discuss with him the strategic issues that ACT is currently dealing with. Dr. Tibor Benkő visited the Joint Forces Staff College, then, besides learning about the possibilities of cooperation, he received a special briefing on the Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) mobile simulator unit in the Joint and Coalition Warfare Center (JCW). By entering this unit into service, the Hungarian Defence Forces are going to acquire a new and fundamentally important operational capability, as the US Congress recently approved a $13.3 million funding for Hungary, to enable the acquisition of capabilities like technical equipment and training that are based on NATO procedures.

On the last day of his visit the Chief of the MoD Defence Staff met in Washington with Dr. György Szapáry, Hungary’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gen. Tibor Benkő was received by Congressman Michael Turner, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and Chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.

(MoD Press Office)