Warship Crews Prepare for Live Fire Exercise

Szöveg: László Szűcs | 2011. szeptember 6. 9:12

A joint Serbian–Hungarian air defence live fire exercise (LFX) will be held under the name ‘Iron Cat 2011’ in Serbia between September 5th and 15th on the Titel water shooting range. The warship crews of the HDF 1st Honvéd EOD and Warship Regiment are already training for the exercise in the Újpest military port and on the Danube.

The AM-31 minesweeper named Dunaújváros sets sail to Megyeri Bridge, when the command ‘Make ready to fire!’ sounds. The warship soldiers make the PAV-4 and PAV-1 anti-aircraft machine guns (AAMGs) of the Dunaújváros in ready condition in just a few moments.

The Hungarians practice the series of manoeuvres, which they will have to do during the exercise Iron Cat 2011 in Serbia, on the Titel water range located on the River Tisza. They have to overcome a distance of 1000-1200 meters with the four-barrel PAV-4, and some 800-1000 meters with the single-barrel PAV-1 to hit the targets placed on the water and on the banks. The Hungarians will complete the fire missions with the ships “borrowed" from the Serbs for the time of the LFX.

“The personnel is about to finish the preparations for the exercise" – says Col. Eng. Gábor Hajdu, the Commander of the unit. He also told us that they have been preparing for years to carry out an LFX finally on the water range, as the Hungarian Defence Forces do not have such a training facility. All in all, 18 Hungarian soldiers will travel to take part in the shooting exercise, 12 of them are weapon operators, the rest being captains and gun direction officers.

The agreement concluded with the Serbs is for three years. According to schedule next year they will visit Hungary to practice call for fire support from the land. The Hungarians will travel to the Serbian water range next time in 2013, but then they will execute the LFX tasks at last with their own ships.