NATO CMX 11 Started

Szöveg: Ádám Draveczki-Ury | 2011. október 27. 11:25

On Wednesday, October 19 the NATO Crisis Management Exercise 2011 (NATO CMX 11) started in all NATO Member States. The NATO CMX 11 – one of the most important crisis management exercises in the Alliance – ended on October 26, and was designed to practice Alliance crisis management procedures at the strategic political level.

Originally scheduled to take place in March 2011, the exercise was postponed due to NATO’s engagement in Libya: on March 31 the Alliance took control of the military operations for Libya to resolve the crisis in the North African country.

“The CMX is one of the most important NATO exercises, which is sponsored by the NATO Secretary General and began simultaneously in every NATO member country", MoD State Secretary for Public Administration Lajos Fodor said at the press conference following the opening, which was attended by MFA State Secretary for Public Administration Iván Bába, MoI Deputy State Secretary for Finance and IT Dr. László Tóth, and the Director of Staff of the exercise, MoD Deputy State Secretary for Defence Policy and Planning Péter Siklósi.
“This year’s exercise is special because after many years its scenario will focus on defence tasks in the classic sense", Lajos Fodor said. The State Secretary added that the MoD Defence Office was instrumental in making preparations for the CMX 11.

The scenario for the exercise is entirely fictitious, just like the geographical area of operations. The portrayed emerging crisis is based on a scenario focusing on NATO’s collective defence task involving consultations on the basis of Article 4 and potential invocation of Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, including both negotiated resolution and military intervention. No forces were actually deployed for the purpose of CMX 11, so no movement of troops took place. The exercise involved a total of 2500 personnel, consisting of the civilian and military staffs in allied capitals, at NATO Headquarters, and in both Strategic Commands. In Hungary, the exercise involved all eight ministries, all four national security services and the public media.