President László Sólyom, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and Defence Minister Imre Szekeres observed the final leg of the Bevetési Irány 2009 (“Direction of Deployment”) military exercises near Ercsi on the Danube on Tuesday.
Remarking that the army comprises disciplined, professional and committed soldiers, Bajnai praised armed forces reform as one of the greatest government successes of recent years, saying it made Hungary a reliable, predictable and active member of NATO.
Sólyom called the war game a festival which convinced him both as commander in chief and as a simple civilian that the armed forces can guarantee the need of ordinary people for safety. Sólyom ate babgulyás and pogácsa with some ordinary soldiers.
In the exercise, 300 combat vehicles and 1,360 soldiers built a temporary beachhead at the site of a destroyed bridge. The soldiers took 12 minutes to build boats that carried up to 80 tons of weight, and built a pontoon bridge capable of carrying combat vehicles.
