Soldiers from Croatia (pictured with mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicles, M-ATVs), Italy, Montenegro, and the US deployed at the end of July and the beginning of August as part of the NATO High Vigilance Battlegroup in Hungary. (Hungarian MoD)
US, Italian, Croatian, and Montenegrin soldiers deployed at the end of July and the beginning of August as part of the NATO High Vigilance Battlegroup in Hungary (HUN eVA BG), the Hungarian Defence Forces (HDF) announced on their website on 4 August.
The four countries will operate with HDF forces that Lieutenant General Zsolt Sándor, deputy commander of the Hungarian Armed Forces, said include a mechanised company, a tank squadron, an artillery battery, joint terminal attack controllers, special forces, and military police, providing the backbone of the battlegroup led by Hungary as the framework country. In addition to the Italian and US squadrons, Croatian special forces and military police, and a Montenegrin section deployed to Hungary, a Turkish squadron is preparing for HUN eVA BG in Turkey, according Lt Gen Sándor.
Italian alpine troops and their equipment were airlifted by an Italian Air Force C-130 to Pápa Air Base, close to the Újmajor base in Veszprém, western Hungary, which hosts the HUN eVA BG.
The HDF expected the battlegroup to reach an initial operational capability by the end of August after training and integration, followed by a full operational capability after exercise ‘Brave Warrior' in September.
The HUN eVA BG is one of four new multinational battlegroups in Eastern Europe approved by NATO leaders meeting during an extraordinary summit in Brussels on 24 March. France leads a battlegroup in Romania, the Czech Republic one in Slovakia, and the Bulgaria one on its home territory.
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