The Training Must Go On!

Over the last two weeks, the personnel attending the mission-oriented basic course for staff
officers have been introduced to the basic duties of staff officers and NCOs, and mastered the
basic skills and core competences that are indispensable for the successful completion of their
planned tour of duty abroad. This course is a complex basic training covering a wide spectrum
of topics with the objective of preparing officers and NCOs of the Hungarian Defence Forces,
who are posted to fill individual staff positions in NATO- and EU-led missions. The course
enables the participants to fill individual positions at the commands and in the staffs of peace
support operations, and to plan and apply the operational procedures they have learnt.

For most personnel, the successfully completed basic course is a kind of “admittance" to the
follow-on mission-oriented training course for staff officers which the HDF PSTC will hold
between March 25–29 in Szolnok, focusing on the Balkans Joint Operational Area (JOA). In
addition to the personnel of the rotation planned to deploy in the Balkans JOA, there was a
soldier among the participants of the basic course who will soon commence his tour with the
European Union mission in Congo (EUSEC RDC), after undergoing further special mission-
oriented training.

The HDF Mi–17 Air Advisory Team (AAT) has been serving in the Afghan Air Force
Educational Center at Shindand Air Base, Afghanistan since August 2011. Drawn from
the personnel of the HDF 86th Szolnok Helicopter Base, the AAT mentors are tasked with
providing (follow-on) training for the air crews of Afghan Mi–17 transport helicopters and
with instructing them in the aviation unit maintenance (AVUM) of the helicopters.

The AAT personnel receive training on multiple locations in several phases. Within this,
the HDF PSTC is responsible for the general peacekeeping operations and theatre-specific
training. In Szolnok, the participants learnt the basics of peacekeeping operations and service
abroad. The theatre-specific training sessions introduced the students to the assessment of the
planned area of operations in terms of military geography and security as well as the religious
and cultural aspects of the region. During the second week of the training, the would-be
mentors executed peacekeeping and special target practices with infantry weapons. The HDF
Mi–17 Air Advisory Team has completed the training at the HDF PSTC, but they are yet
to receive a lot of special and trade training until they reach full operational capability in
Hungary.

On the second week, some members of the HDF national Deployable CIS Module (DCM-E)
joined the training of the air mentor team. They are also training to deploy in the Afghanistan
theatre where they will fill individual MOS positions.

Photos by the author