We Held Our Own in 2012
Szöveg: honvedelem.hu / MTI | 2013. január 31. 19:40This year’s defence budget has increased by HUF 7 billion as compared with last year’s, but we need to continue making economical use of the budgetary resources, Minister of Defence Csaba Hende said at the annual tasking staff meeting which was held in Budapest on Thursday, January 31.
Minister Hende announced that in 2013 the Ministry of Defence would be allocated a total
budget of HUF 241,367 million, which is three per cent higher and corresponds to 0.8 per cent
of the GDP. The Minister of Defence reminded his audience of the government’s commitment
to keeping the nominal value of the defence budget on the same level until 2015, and to
increasing it after 2015 by 0.1 per cent of the GDP every year. A very “strict and economical"
use of the resources is needed in this year too, so part of the budget is going to be sequestered
again – the expected rate of sequestration will be 20 per cent for the MoD and its affiliated
institutions whereas it will be 10 per cent for the HDF units, the Military Hospital and the
Military Security Service, the Minister added.
Speaking about this year’s goals, the Minister of Defence said that according to plans, the
Hungarian Defence Forces would assume force protection duties again at Kabul International
Airport (KAIA), their role in Afghanistan would be transformed and the mandate of the
Provincial Reconstruction Team would end in the Central Asian country. The planning for the
details of the Mali mission is already under way, and Hungary would probably send around
10 soldiers to the African country, he said.
The Minister called the sustainment of the “helicopter capability" one of the most important
tasks for this year. In this matter, the Ministry has three options, namely to upgrade the old
Soviet aircraft, to buy second-hand ones or possibly new ones. According to the Minister,
the most economical solution for the Ministry would be to buy new helicopters. Minister
Hende noted that in 2013, Hungary may be requested to provide air policing in the airspace
of Slovenia, and the Hungarian Defence Forces could carry out this mission with the Gripen
tactical fighter aircraft. A further goal to be achieved is that civil planes can also use the
military aerodromes in the future.
Referring to the upcoming run-up to the parliamentary elections, the Minister said that they
would not tolerate any “partisanship or campaign" in the Ministry because home defence is “a
national cause".
Photos: Mária Krasznai-Nehrebeczky
