Ancient, medieval, and early modern military The Hungarian tribes of
Árpád vezér who came to settle in the
Carpathian Basin were noted for their fearsome
light cavalry, which conducted
frequent raids throughout much of
Western Europe (as far as present-day
Spain), maintaining their military supremacy with long-range and rapid-firing
reflex bows. Not until the introduction of well-regulated, plate-armored knight
heavy cavalry could German emperors stop the Hungarian armies. During the Árpáds the light-cavalry-based army was transformed slowly into a western-style one. The light cavalry lost its privileged position, replaced by a feudal army formed mainly from heavy cavalry. The Hungarian field armies were drawn up into an articulated formation (as it happened in
Battle of Przemyśl (1099),
Battle at Leitha (1146),
Battle of Morvamező (1278), (1349), in three main
battle (formation) (1146, 1278, 1349). According to the contemporary sources and later speculations, the first line was formed by light cavalry archers (
Battle of Oslava (1116, 1146, 1260, 1278). Usually, they started the battle followed by a planned retreat (1116, 1146),
Battle of Kressenbrunn (1260). The major decisive battles of the Hungarian army were placed in the second or third lines consisted mainly of the most valuable parts of the army – in general heavy cavalry (1146, 1278, 1349). The commanders of the
Hungarian Kingdom's army used different tactics, based on a recognition of their own and the enemies' (
Holy Roman Empire,
Pechenegs,
Uzes,
Cumans,
Mongols,
Byzantine Empire) abilities and deficiencies. The Hungarian knight army had its golden age under King
Louis the Great, who himself was a famed warrior and conducted successful campaigns in
Italy due to family matters (his younger brother married
Joanna I, Queen of Naples who murdered him later.) King
Matthias Corvinus maintained very modern mercenary-based royal troops, called the
Black Army. King Matthias favoured ancient artillery (
catapults) as opposed to cannons, which were the favourite of his father,
Johannes Hunyadi, former
Regent of Hungary. During the
Ottoman invasion of Central Europe (between late 14th century and circa 1700) Hungarian soldiers protected fortresses and launched light cavalry attacks against the Turks (see
Hungarian Hussars). The northern fortress of
Eger was famously defended in the autumn of 1552 during the 39-day
Siege of Eger against the combined forces of two Ottoman armies numbering circa 120,000 men and 16 ultra-heavy siege guns. The victory was very important, because two much stronger forts of
Szolnok and
Temesvár had fallen quickly during the summer. Public opinion attributed Eger's success to the all-Hungarian garrison, as the above two forts had fallen due to treason by the foreign mercenaries manning them. In 1596,
Eger fell to the Ottomans for the same reason. In the 1566
Battle of Szigetvár,
Miklós Zrínyi defended
Szigetvár for 30 days against the largest Ottoman army ever seen up to that day, and died leading his remaining few soldiers on a final suicide charge to become one of the best-known national heroes. His great-grandson,
Miklós Zrínyi, poet and general, became one of the better-known strategists of the 1660s. In 1686, the capital city
Buda was freed from the Ottomans by an allied Christian army composed of Austrian, Hungarian, and Western European troops, each roughly one-third of the army. The
Habsburg empire then annexed Hungary.
Habsburg military and Hungarian anti-Habsburg uprisings Under
Habsburg rule,
Hungarian Hussars rose to international fame and served as a model for light cavalry in many European countries. During the 18th and 19th centuries hundreds of thousands of forcibly enrolled Hungarian males served 12 years or more each as line infantry in the Austrian Imperial Army. Two wars of independence interrupted this era, that of Prince
Francis II Rákóczi between 1703 and 1711 and that of
Lajos Kossuth in 1848–1849. A July 11, 1848 act of parliament in Budapest called for the formation of an army, the
Honvédség, of 200,000 which would use the
Magyar language of command. It was to be formed around already extant imperial units, twenty battalions of infantry, ten hussar regiments, and two regiments of
Székely from the
Transylvanian Military Frontier. They were further joined by eight companies of two Italian regiments stationed in Hungary and parts of the Fifth Bohemian Artillery Regiment. In 1848–1849 the Honvédség (mostly made up of enthusiastic patriots with no prior military training) achieved incredible successes against better-trained and -equipped Austrian forces, despite the obvious advantage in numbers on the Austrian side. The Winter Campaign of
Józef Bem and the Spring Campaign of
Artúr Görgey are to this day taught at prestigious military schools around the globe, including at
West Point Academy in the United States. Having suffered initial setbacks, including the loss of
Pest-Buda, the Honvéd took advantage of the Austrians' lack of initiative and re-formed around the
Debrecen-based Kossuth government. The Hungarians advanced again and by the end of spring 1849, Hungary was basically cleared of foreign forces, and would have achieved independence, were it not for the Russian intervention. At the request of the
Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, the Russians invaded with a force of 190,000 soldiers – against the Honvédség's 135,000 – and decisively defeated Bem's Second Army in Transylvania, opening the path into the heart of Hungary. This way the Austrian-Russian coalition outnumbered Hungarian forces 3:1, which led to Hungary's
surrender at Világos on 13 August 1849.
Sándor Petőfi, the great Hungarian poet, went
missing in action in the
Battle of Segesvár, against invading Russian forces. However, even outnumbered so greatly, the Hungarians scored several great victories, such as the
battles of Komárom. Komárom remained free and defiant under the command of General
György Klapka after the surrender of the main army at Világos, until an armistice was granted at the end of September. In April 1867, the
Austro-Hungarian Empire was established. Franz Josef, the head of the ancient
Habsburg dynasty, was recognized as both
Emperor of Austria and
King of Hungary. Nevertheless, the issue of what form the Hungarian military would take remained a matter of serious contention between Hungarian patriots and Austrian leaders. As the impasse threatened the political union, Emperor Franz Josef ordered a council of generals in November of the same year. Ultimately, the leaders resolved on the following solution: in addition to the
joint (k.u.k.) army, Hungary would have its own defence force, whose members would swear their oath to the King of Hungary (who was also Emperor of Austria) and the national constitution, use the Hungarian language of command, and display their own flags and insignia. (Austria would also form its own parallel national defence force, the
Landwehr.) As a result of these negotiations, on 5 December 1868, the
Royal Hungarian Honvéd (
Magyar Kiralyi Honvédség, or Defence Force) was established. The Honvédség was usually treated generously by the
Diet in Budapest. By 1873 it already had over 2,800 officers and 158,000 men organized into eighty-six battalions and fifty-eight squadrons. In 1872, the
Ludovika Academy officially began training cadets (and later staff officers). Honvédség units engaged in manoeuvres and were organized into seven divisions in seven military districts. While artillery was not allowed, the force did form batteries of
Gatling guns in the 1870s. In the midst of trouble between the imperial government and the parliament in 1906, the Honvédség was further expanded and finally received its own artillery units. In this form, the force approached the coming world war in most respects as a truly "national" Hungarian army.
World War I Hungarian soldiers "fought with distinction" on every front contested by Austria-Hungary in the
First World War. Honvédség units (along with the
Austrian Landwehr) were considered fit for front line combat service and equal to those of the joint forces K.U.K. army. They saw combat especially on the
Eastern Front and at the
Battles of the Isonzo on the
Italian Front. Out of the eight million men mobilized by Austria-Hungary, over one million died. Hungarians as a national group were second only to German Austrians in their share of this burden, experiencing twenty-eight war deaths for every thousand persons. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire in late 1918, the
Red Army of the Hungarian communist state (
Hungarian Soviet Republic) conducted successful campaigns to protect the country's borders. However, in the
Hungarian–Romanian War of 1919 Hungary came under occupation by the
Romanian,
Serbian,
American, and
French troops, as after four years of extensive fighting, the country lacked both the necessary manpower and equipment to fend off foreign invaders. In accordance with the
Treaty of Bucharest, upon leaving, the
Romanian army took substantial compensation for reparations. This included agricultural goods and industrial machinery as well as raw materials. The
Trianon Treaty limited the
Hungarian National Army to 35,000 men and forbade conscription. The army was forbidden to possess tanks, heavy armor, or an air force.
Mid-twentieth century On 9 August 1919, Admiral
Miklós Horthy united various anti-communist military units into an 80,000-strong National Army (
Nemzeti Hadsereg). On 1 January 1922, the National Army was once again redesignated the Royal Hungarian Army. During the 1930s and early 1940s,
Hungary was preoccupied with the regaining the vast territories and huge amount of population lost in the
Trianon peace treaty at
Versailles in 1920. This required strong armed forces to defeat the
neighbouring states and this was something Hungary could not afford. Instead, the Hungarian
Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, made an alliance with
Nazi Germany. In exchange for this alliance and via the
First and
Second Vienna Awards, Hungary received back parts of its lost territories from
Yugoslavia,
Romania, and
Czechoslovakia. Hungary was to pay dearly during and after
World War II for these temporary gains. On 5 March 1938, Prime Minister
Kálmán Darányi announced a rearmament program (the so-called
Győr Programme, named after the city where it was announced to the public). Starting 1 October, the armed forces established a five-year expansion plan with Huba I-III revised orders of battle.
Conscription was introduced on a national basis in 1939. The peacetime strength of the
Royal Hungarian Army grew to 80,000 men organized into seven corps commands. captain and 6 of his men who fell, fighting on the Polish side in
Warsaw uprising 1944 On 15 October 1944, the Germans launched
Operation Panzerfaust and forced Horthy to abdicate. Pro-Nazi
Ferenc Szálasi was made p
rime minister by the Germans. On 28 December 1944, a
provisional government under the control of the
Soviet Union was formed in liberated
Debrecen with
Béla Miklós as its
prime minister. Miklós was the commander of the
Hungarian First Army, but most of the First Army sided with the Germans and most of what remained of it was destroyed about 200 kilometres north of Budapest between 1 January and 16 February. The pro-
Communist government formed by Miklós competed with the pro-Nazi
government of Ferenc Szálasi. The Germans, Szálasi, and pro-German Hungarian forces loyal to Szálasi fought on. On 20 January 1945, representatives of the provisional government of
Béla Miklós signed an armistice in
Moscow. But forces loyal to Szálasi still continued to fight on. The
Red Army, with assistance from Romanian army units, completed the encirclement of Budapest on 29 December 1944 and the
Siege of Budapest began. On 2 February 1945, the strength of the Royal Hungarian Army was 214,465 men, but about 50,000 of these had been formed into
unarmed labor battalions. After the failed offensive, the Germans in Hungary were defeated. Most of what remained of the
Hungarian Third Army was destroyed about 50 kilometres west of Budapest between 16 March and 25 March 1945. Officially, Soviet operations in Hungary ended on 4 April 1945 when the last German troops were expelled. Some pro-fascist Hungarians like Szálasi retreated with the Germans into Austria and Czechoslovakia. During the very last phase of the war,
Fascist Hungarian forces fought in
Vienna,
Breslau,
Küstrin, and along the
Oder River. Szálasi and many other pro-fascist Hungarians were captured and ultimately returned to Hungary's provisional government for trial.
Warsaw Pact During the Socialist and the
Warsaw Pact era (1947–1989), the Soviet
Southern Group of Forces, 200,000 strong, was garrisoned in Hungary, complete with artillery, tank regiments, air force and missile troops (with nuclear weapons). It was, by all means, a very capable force but which had little contact with the local population. Between 1949 and 1955 there was also a huge effort to build a big Hungarian army. All procedures, disciplines, and equipment were exact copies of the
Soviet Armed Forces in methods and material, but the huge costs collapsed the economy by 1956. During the autumn
1956 revolution, the army was divided. When the opening demonstrations on 23 October 1956 were fired upon by
ÁVH secret policemen, Hungarian troops sent to crush the demonstrators instead provided their arms to the latter or joined them outright. While most major military units in the capital were neutral during the fighting, thousands of rank-and-file soldiers went over to the Revolution or at least provided the revolutionaries with arms. Many significant military units went over to the uprising in full, such as the armored unit commanded by Colonel
Pál Maléter which joined forces with the insurgents at the
Battle of the Corvin Passage. However, there were 71 recorded clashes between the people and the army between 24 and 29 October in fifty localities; these were typically either defending certain military targets from rebel attack or fighting the insurgents outright, depending on the commander.
Zrínyi 2026 Modernization Program In 2016, PM
Orbán confirmed that Hungary will meet its NATO obligations by increasing its defense spending to about 2 percent of GDP. The official government "
Zrínyi 2026" program of upgrading military equipment is scheduled to last until 2026, but the timeline has been expanded until 2030–2032. New purchased and ordered equipment so far includes new
CZ BREN 2 assault rifles (to be manufactured locally),
helicopters,
transport and trainer aircraft, tanks,
armored vehicles,
radars and surface-to-air missiles. Hungary ordered 20
H145M and 16
H225M in 2018. All H145M aircraft had been delivered by the end of 2021. H225M are expected to arrive between 2023 and 2024. In early 2019 the first batch of
Carl Gustaf M4s has arrived, starting to replace the old
RPG-7s. In late 2019, Hungary signed a contract for 44
Leopard 2 A7+ tanks and 24
PzH 2000 howitzers for €300 million to be delivered in 2021 to 2025. In 2020 Hungary and
Rheinmetall Group have signed a contract to start manufacturing the
Lynx infantry fighting vehicle family in Hungary. Estimated to start arriving around 2024–2025, the first batch of 200+ Lynx vehicles are expected to reach operational capability in the Hungarian Defence Forces by 2026-2027 In 2020 the Hungarian airforce ordered two
KC-390 cargo and tanker aircraft to be delivered in 2023 and 2024. This year
Kongsberg and
Raytheon were awarded a 410 million EUR contract by Hungary for
NASAMS surface-to air missile systems. 11
ELM-2084 radars were also ordered in late 2020. The
Mistral SAM system has been upgraded: new M3 missiles were purchased and both the launchers and the MCPs were modernized. In 2021
Spike LR2 anti-tank missiles has been ordered, mainly for the Lynx IFVs. In August 2021 contract has been signed with SAAB to upgrade the Hungarian Gripen fleet to the MS20 Block 2 standard. This upgrade greatly increases both Gripen's combat and communication capabilities, as well as access to a wide range of weapons that can be integrated on Hungarian Air Force Gripen fighters. The cutting edge
IRIS-T missile has been also ordered in 2021.
Meteor and
GBU-49 is planned to be purchased for the Gripen's arsenal. There is a plan to also set up a second fighter squadron, but it has not been confirmed. File:CZ BREN 2.jpg|CZ BREN 2 - standard-issue rifle of the Hungarian Armed Forces File:Saab JAS-39D Gripen, Hungary - Air Force JP6627802.jpg|Gripen fighters of Hungary File:Hungarian Lynx APC.jpg|Hungarian Lynx IFV File:Hungarian Leopard 2.jpg|Hungarian Leopard 2A4 File:Hungary Leopard 2A7HU tank.jpg|Hungarian LEOPARD 2A7+ File:Hungarian H145 Helicopters.jpg|Hungarian H145M on exercise File:Hungarian H225 Helicopter.jpg|Hungarian H225M File:Gidran MRAP vehicle of the Hungarian Armed Forces.jpg|Hungarian "Gidrán" MRAP File:Hungary NASAMS.jpg|Hungarian NASAMS == Current international missions ==