Hungarian Military Engineers on Flood Control Exercise in Serbia

Over the last decade, the appearance of large amounts of water in the catchment area of the Rivers Tisa and Danube has led to a heightened threat level of flood and inland waters damage. The actual deployment of military forces and the elevated threat level also justified the introduction of the annual exercise, which is based on the HDF Disaster Relief Scheme. The first joint activity with Serbia started with the exercise “CONFIDENT LEAP" in 2006, and continued under the name “BIG RIVER" for two years. In 2009, the exercise became tri-national with the joining of the Romanian partners and was renamed “TISA". Since then, the training exercise has been conducted once a year on a rotational basis in the territories of the participating countries.

The tri-national operative staff at the battalion HQ jointly planned the rescue and disaster relief operations in order to prevent the disaster and minimize its consequences. Brig.-Gen. János Huszár, the Land Forces Chief of the HDF Joint Force Command and Col. Zsolt Hajgató, the Hungarian military attaché accredited to Serbia were also present on the VIP day of the exercise. At the end of the day the superiors of all three nations were satisfied with and spoke highly of what they had seen.

During the exercise the soldiers got to know each other’s tasks schemes and military equipment, which ensures the quick and precise execution of the joint tasks in a potential disaster situation.