Hungarian Standby Company Called into Action
Szöveg: Lt.-Col. Péter Somogyi, Capt. Imre Farkas | 2013. május 4. 6:06The stability of the Balkans and Hungary’s participation in the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina are very important from the viewpoint of Hungarian foreign and security policy. Since 2004, Hungary has been participating with a 160-plus strong contingent in Operation Althea of the European Union. The task of the Hungarian contingent changed in last September, since most of its personnel now serve as a reserve force in a state of readiness in Hungary.
The Intermediate Reserve Force (IR) arrived in Sarajevo on April 15 to participate in the
multinational exercise “Quick Response 2013". This operation was conducted to train the IR
companies in the tasks of activation, realistic deployment and integration/interoperability.
EUFOR Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. (Eng.) József Szpisják, Hungarian Senior National
Representative also welcomed the arriving Hungarian soldiers. At the opening of the exercise,
Maj.-Gen. Dieter Heidecker, Commander EUFOR welcomed the peacekeepers of the British
and Austrian companies in addition to the Hungarian ones.
The call-out and the subsequent movement to the mission area were based on the EUFOR
training plan, and the standby force executed them by the pre-set time. After deploying to
the area of operations, the Hungarian company started taking over military equipment and
materiel, with support from the troop reception section which is to be stationed in Sarajevo
from this September on.
Apart from the soldiers of the Hungarian company as well as British, Austrian and Turkish
troops, designated units of the armed forces of Bosnia-Herzegovina also participated in the
exercise. The tasks required multiple redeployment of the companies from Camp Butmir to
the training bases of Rajlovac, Pazaric and Kalinovik. During the exercise the companies were
trained in the tasks of securing of areas, patrolling, evacuation, VIP and cargo transport as
well as crowd and riot control (CRC) tactics.
Photo: HDF EUFOR Contingent
