Tasking – With A Tactical Demonstration

The traditional annual review and tasking meeting of the Hungarian Defence Forces is usually held in the capital, in one of the facilities of the Ministry of Defence, or occasionally, in the barracks of one of the corps based in Budapest. But this time, the event ’moved’ to the countryside, for on February 5, the review and tasking meeting was held in Tata, in the casern of HDF 25th ’György Klapka’ Infantry Brigade, and also in the shooting range of the garrison.

Not only the scene of this year’s conference, but the programme was special as well, for the personnel summoned to the meeting – that is the commanders of the corps and military organizations, and the heads of military representations abroad – could also watch a tactical demonstration. In the framework of the half-hour session, the deployment of so-called standby divisions was presented while performing national defence and border control tasks.

The participants of the conference have learned on the spot from Lieutenant General Tibor Benkõ, Commander of HDF Joint Forces Command that the demonstration was based on an imaginary, fictitious situation: the economic and social balance of the neighbouring country has been perturbed in recent weeks, the military attempted an armed takeover, which has failed. In the civil war situation that has evolved as a result, both the government and the anti-government powers have considerable powers and armaments at their disposal. Since the opposing parties are continuously fighting, it cannot be excluded that their groups having the power of a platoon/company may drift to our territory. And of course, it is not impossible either that splinter groups cross the border on purpose to round the enemy by taking advantage of the protection provided by the neutral area.

This is exactly why the Hungarian Defence Forces have adopted regulations to be implemented with immediate effect, and alerted the land standby service, as well as the air standby division. The land standby service is a temporary combat formation based on an infantry battalion, with a personnel of three infantry companies and the respective tank platoons, a controlled armour-piercing platoon, and a towed cannon howitzer fire platoon.

In the scope of the briefing given by Lt.Gen. Benkõ, it was also said that since in the past twelve hours, our forces detected considerable troop movement from the other side of the border and in its vicinity, they have designated response forces from the land standby service. After describing the situation that has evolved, the troops of the temporary combat formation demonstrated how to identify and defuse the improvised explosive devices – so-called IEDs – planted by the side of the road. They also demonstrated how the enemy forces that have appeared in the meantime have to be kept under continuous fire until the infantry battalion receiving the alarm gets on the combat vehicle and arrives to the endangered border section. After that, the participants of the review and tasking meeting watched the fight of the armour-piercing platoon, the tank platoon, and that of the foot soldiers. The ’war’ lasted until the enemy was forced back behind the border, following that, the personnel of the temporary combat formation secured the borderline.