Martin Glváč: Service members meet their 2015 commitments vis-à-vis Slovakia’s security
- Author:
- Photo:
- Date: 03.01.2016
- Share: Zdieľať na Facebook
The S-300 Air Defence System in live action for the first time, unexpected exercises, the V4 Battle Group’s certification, or the largest international military exercise in the contemporary history of the SVK Armed Forces. Even these were the facets of the 2015 training year for SVK Armed Forces servicemen and women.
The military drills in 2015 brought new expertise to soldiers from deployments in the international environment, preparing them for realistic security threats of today’s world. Commenting on the military exercises, Minister of Defence Martin Glváč said: “In the past, we made a statement that soldiers would conduct more exercises and we’ve lived up to it. By doing this, we are fulfilling our pledge and, simultaneously, our commitment vis-à-vis Slovakia’s security.”
Throughout the entire year, our soldiers were joined by other security enforcement components to gear up for a potential emergency involving a massive influx of refugees. “The current security situation is not ideal and calls for our increased attention. That’s why we decided to initiate an exercise aimed at verifying the coordination and readiness of our security components to respond to a wave of refugees from different regions,” said Minister Glváč.
At the end of October, Service and Police personnel moved from a fictitious to near-real environment of the border between Slovakia and Hungary. Mission SOUTH tested the reaction time of combined military and police patrols to position themselves at control checkpoints across 11 districts in southern Slovakia. This activity further involved military personnel being deployed to Exercise Balaton 2015, international military drills in Hungary. There, SVK Armed Forces personnel aligned their Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) with other V4 Armed Forces, preparing for the eventuality of a force deployment to resolve a migration crisis.
“Although the performance of this set of tasks is not typically undertaken by armed forces, with regard to the situation on European borders, it is becoming an everyday reality,” said Chief of the General Staff of the SVK Armed Forces Gen Milan Maxim.
The training of soldiers for this emergency culminated last autumn, when 4,000 troops exercised complex training tasks in the face of military and non-military threats as part of Exercise Slovak Shield. Lešť Training Area hosted the exercise, bringing together troops from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and the United States. “The Slovak Shield series was underway throughout the entire year. Troops were exercised, for example, in protecting the territorial integrity of our country, as well as resolving different military and non-military crisis situations,” explained Gen Maxim.
The exercise also involved massive movements of military vehicles and equipment, such as T-72 main battle tanks, mobile anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence systems, armoured infantry vehicles and trucks, which may have been noticed on roads by local residents throughout the whole of Slovakia. During the exercise, over 600 pieces of vehicles and equipment moved along Slovakia’s roads.
Protecting strategically important facilities in the Slovak Republic, such as nuclear power plants, strategic areas, including cities, is among the tasks of the S-300 Air Defence System, with which our soldiers conducted a historically first live fire exercise last year.
“I would like to congratulate our soldiers on their excellent results during this as well as all the other exercises that occurred in 2015. They successfully demonstrated their readiness throughout the entire year,” concluded Minister of Defence Martin Glváč.
The military drills in 2015 brought new expertise to soldiers from deployments in the international environment, preparing them for realistic security threats of today’s world. Commenting on the military exercises, Minister of Defence Martin Glváč said: “In the past, we made a statement that soldiers would conduct more exercises and we’ve lived up to it. By doing this, we are fulfilling our pledge and, simultaneously, our commitment vis-à-vis Slovakia’s security.”
Throughout the entire year, our soldiers were joined by other security enforcement components to gear up for a potential emergency involving a massive influx of refugees. “The current security situation is not ideal and calls for our increased attention. That’s why we decided to initiate an exercise aimed at verifying the coordination and readiness of our security components to respond to a wave of refugees from different regions,” said Minister Glváč.
At the end of October, Service and Police personnel moved from a fictitious to near-real environment of the border between Slovakia and Hungary. Mission SOUTH tested the reaction time of combined military and police patrols to position themselves at control checkpoints across 11 districts in southern Slovakia. This activity further involved military personnel being deployed to Exercise Balaton 2015, international military drills in Hungary. There, SVK Armed Forces personnel aligned their Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) with other V4 Armed Forces, preparing for the eventuality of a force deployment to resolve a migration crisis.
“Although the performance of this set of tasks is not typically undertaken by armed forces, with regard to the situation on European borders, it is becoming an everyday reality,” said Chief of the General Staff of the SVK Armed Forces Gen Milan Maxim.
The training of soldiers for this emergency culminated last autumn, when 4,000 troops exercised complex training tasks in the face of military and non-military threats as part of Exercise Slovak Shield. Lešť Training Area hosted the exercise, bringing together troops from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and the United States. “The Slovak Shield series was underway throughout the entire year. Troops were exercised, for example, in protecting the territorial integrity of our country, as well as resolving different military and non-military crisis situations,” explained Gen Maxim.
The exercise also involved massive movements of military vehicles and equipment, such as T-72 main battle tanks, mobile anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence systems, armoured infantry vehicles and trucks, which may have been noticed on roads by local residents throughout the whole of Slovakia. During the exercise, over 600 pieces of vehicles and equipment moved along Slovakia’s roads.
Protecting strategically important facilities in the Slovak Republic, such as nuclear power plants, strategic areas, including cities, is among the tasks of the S-300 Air Defence System, with which our soldiers conducted a historically first live fire exercise last year.
“I would like to congratulate our soldiers on their excellent results during this as well as all the other exercises that occurred in 2015. They successfully demonstrated their readiness throughout the entire year,” concluded Minister of Defence Martin Glváč.
