One Thousand Three Hundred Soldiers At The Banks Of The Danube

Monday afternoon more than six hundred soldiers lined up on the temporary parade ground set up at the former military water training ground near Ercsi. For this year – between 31 August and 25 September – the most important and most extensive training event of the Hungarian Defence Forces, the tactical-level computer-supported command and personnel leadership exercise titled Deployment Direction will be conducted in this area. At this year’s exercise the most important tasks of the troops will be to demonstrate the joint activity of an ad-hoc combat formation based on an infantry battalion and a mixed bridge construction company.

The first group of soldiers arrived to Ercsi on 17 August and immediately started the construction of a ‘tent town’ that would accommodate more than 1,300 service personnel. It has taken only a few days for them and since then troops keep arriving to the camp set up at the bank of the Danube. Until the middle of the 1990s there had been regular tactical exercises of this kind in this area but since then no such training events have been held.

As it is known exercises Deployment Direction have been conducted by the Hungarian Defence Forces every autumn since 2005. The aim of the large-scale exercises is to demonstrate the operations, efficiency and deployability of the professional military for the public. In 2005, in the framework of the first Deployment Direction exercise the modular organizational structure of battalions and brigades were demonstrated for the visitors, along with some new technical equipments such as the Zenon water purification device, the mobile biological laboratory complex, and the decontamination contanier. This was also the year when the civilian–military cooperation and psychological operations capabilities were introduced.

In 2006, the main emphasis was on preparing for the Afghanistan commitment of the Hungarian Defence Forces and a camp identical with the Hungarian camp in the Asian country was set up in front of the zero-point ’inspection tower’. Those who were invited to the exercise that year could learn more about the tasks of the Provincial Reconstruction Team, the MILES simulation system, the battalion-level chemical and nuclear decontamination equipments, and the first topographical container.

The aim of Deployment Direction 2007 was to demonstrate the command/control system of the HDF Joint Forces Command (JFC) established early that year, and the crisis response operations in times of peace. While in 2008, the main emphasis was on demonstrating the planning, organizational, command and control tasks of national defence operations, and the cooperation between land and air formations.

The idea came up after last year’s exercise that in 2009, old military capabilities should be demonstrated that have not been used in the Hungarian Defence Forces for long years and the implementation of which would therefore be a new challenge for both the personnel and the military equipments. Thus the main task of this year’s exercise is the practice and completion of water crossing, since restoring the so-called ’capability to overcome obstacles in water’ is timely and necessary for the corps of the Hungarian Defence Forces – as it has been said at the opening ceremony of the exercise. And the most suitable venue for the execution of this task has proven to be the former river crossing training ground by the Danube, near the town of Ercsi.

At the personnel assembly held on the occasion of the opening of exercise Deployment Direction 2009 – also attended by Mr Tamás Szabó, the mayor of Ercsi – Lieutenant General Tibor Benkõ, Commander of the HDF Joint Forces Command said: of course, this year’s exercise is not only about the troops’ ability to execute water crossing with the help of technical equipments. The cooperation of the subordinate military organizations of the JFC is also an important aim. The most extensive tactical exercise in 2009 also serves to test the joint work of branches, services, specialized teams, the service and the support corps.

Lt.Gen. Benkõ added: just like in the previous years, the safety of the troops is the most important at this exercise, naturally, but in addition to that they will also pay special attention to the protection of the environment since the area where the exercise is conducted is a water base and it is also a part of the Natura 2000 program.

At the press conference following the opening ceremony the commander of the HDF JFC emphasized: the main task of Deployment Direction 2009, that is water crossing, seems to be a simple task only at first hearing, for it requires very thorough preparation and reconnaissance. Lt.Gen. Benkõ also told the press that the dynamic phase of the exercise will end with the so-called professional day on 14 September and the main visitors’ day on 15 September. Dignitaries, among them President László Sólyom, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, and several ministers have also been invited to the main visitors’ day.

Lt.Gen. Benkõ underlined that the exercise was preceded by a thorough planning work that started a year ago. Of course, they have obtained all the necessary permits from the authorities.

Mr Tamás Szabó, the mayor of Ercsi told the press that the municipality was informed about the plans of the Hungarian Defence Forces to conduct an exercise near the edge of the town more than a year ago. One of the reasons they were very glad about this is that Ercsi had been a military town for nearly fifty years, from 1950 until 1999, when one of the engineering corps of the former Hungarian People’s Army, and later that of the Hungarian Defence Forces had stationed in the town. Of course, they have informed the inhabitants of the town about this exercise as well, moreover, the defence forces have also made it possible for those who are interested in the military maneuvers to monitor the most important phases on site.

The mayor hopes that the activities of the troops will not disturb the inhabitants. He has been promised in advance that the military ‘maneuvers’ will be conducted only on weekdays and during the day – it was said at the press conference.

Major General József Kovács, Deputy Commander of HDF JFC said at the press conference: prior to setting up the camp the troops had terminated eight illegal landfills and had taken away fourteen lorries of waste from the site. They have also reconstructed nearly seven kilometres of country lane that will be used by the employees of the water works and the forestry. Maj.Gen. Kovács also told the press that in total, 1,360 troops and 300 technical equipments will participate in the exercise. Most of the troops have come from the Hódmezõvásárhely battalions of the HDF 5th ’István Bocskai’ Infantry Brigade, the HDF 37th ’Ferenc Rákóczi II’ Engineering Battalion of Szentes, and the HDF 1st Honvéd Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Warship Battalion. Services and logistics will be provided by the troops of the Kaposvár Logistics Regiment and the Signal and Command Support Regiment of Székesfehérvár.

Lt.Gen. Tibor Benkõ told honvedelem.hu that during the dynamic phases of the exercise they are to order a river block on the Danube as per a ‘planning board’ scheduled in advance. This is important because the river is an international waterway and under various agreements the undisturbed vessel traffic must be ensured. Naturally, the implementation of tasks planned in advance also depends on the water level of the Danube to a great extent. In the opinion of Lt.Gen. Benkõ even if the water level of the river will be more than one meter higher on the key days of the exercise than it is at the moment, it will still not hinder the safe implementation of the exercise. In case the weather changes radically, and due to an even higher water level they will not be able to demonstrate water crossing, then on the professional and the main visitors’ day they will carry out the CREVAL, that is the combat readiness evaluation of one of the battalions of the Debrecen Brigade at the so-called zero point exercise ground near Várpalota.

After the press conference the journalists had an opportunity to watch the activities that were going on at the bank of the Danube. The troops of the first bridge construction company of the Szentes battalion were practicing the tasks they will have to perform on the 14th and 15th of September.