Hungarian Troops Come Under Ground, Artillery and Air Attacks

According to the scenario, a fictitious country PANAU with a strengthened economy and military uses its power for expansion, so it invades SODOR country and occupies part of its territory. The attacked country is trying to prevent the invasion and does its best to restore the original situation. In doing this, it is helped by three batteries of the 252nd Air Defence Missile Battalion, which is composed of the 1st SAM battery staffed by Czech and Slovak soldiers, the 2nd SAM battery consisting of Hungarian and Lithuanian platoons and the Czech 3rd KUB battery.

All nations delegate liaison officers to the battalion headquarters which is under Czech command and has Czech assets, while the American unit provides communications equipment. The 2nd SAM battery command post is manned and equipped by the soldiers of the Győr regiment, and there are Lithuanian liaison officers helping the joint work at the command post.

The commander of the Hungarian battery is in charge of a MISTRAL SAM platoon and a Lithuanian RBS-70 SAM platoon which the Czech partners support with a signals center, whereas the 1st SAM battery is composed of the Czech RBS-70 and the Slovak IGLA SAM platoons.

The enemy uses METEOR unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to conduct reconnaissance, JAS-39 Gripen fighter jets to fly SEAD missions and L-410 transport aircraft to redeploy prisoners of war and troops. The SAM systems of the multinational “blue forces" battalion are confronted by such enemy forces, and its Mi-17 helicopters fly MEDEVAC missions escorted by Mi-24 attack helicopters.

The Hungarian platoon, therefore, is not in a simple situation, because the enemy is trying to deny the air defence coverage with several means. During the tactical exercise, the Győr soldiers’ MISTRAL Coordination Post (MCP) and launchers are raided by ground troops and come under artillery attacks several times, so they redeploy to change the order of battle and relocate. On multiple occasions, the blue forces have to MEDEVAC soldiers wounded in actions on the ground or in the air.

The reaction to unexpected situations is further complicated by the presence of an international team of evaluators who are going to give an exact analysis of the task execution to see what went right during the soldiers’ activities.

The objective of Exercise “Tobruq Legacy 2015" is to create interoperability and strengthen the capability of cooperation among the participating nations, which ensures joint and successful air defence coverage. This is the first time that an air defence exercise of this scale is held in the Czech Republic. The troops of participating nations can develop their capabilities gained during the command and control of ground-based air defence (GBAD) units of NATO member states, and learned valuable lessons that they can later use in allied operations.

On Wednesday, Exercise “Tobruq Legacy 2015" continued with a SAM live fire exercise that was visited by the superiors of participating nations on the July 2 VIP Day.

Photos by the author