Speed is essential

The soldiers executed Crowd Riot Control (CRC) tasks on platoon and company levels during the training sessions which lasted from dawn to dusk each day. For several days, they practiced how to quickly board and exit the types of helicopters in use with KFOR. This training is compulsory for all soldiers of the maneuver company of the joint Portuguese–Hungarian KFOR Tactical Reserve Maneuver Battalion (KTM), since rotary-wing airlift is the fastest way of inserting KFOR troops.

The training sessions start with a briefing on the safety regulations.

Afterwards the helicopter pilot or the flight engineer briefs the personnel on the proper ingress procedure for the helicopter and the procedure of taking their seats. The reason is that it makes a difference which part of the helicopter is boarded by the passengers in which order. Considering that they execute the task while boarding the aircraft with the riot control protective suit and equipment on, the operation requires intense concentration of the participants. During the several-day training, the Hungarians executed the tasks using the Mi–171 of the Croatian Air Force and the Super Puma helicopter of the Swiss Air Force, among others. The training goes on until the FOC exercise, where our soldiers will demonstrate their professional skills to the KFOR leaders.