Here on FTD facts
We always are learning about many different
cultures and places and
People from around the world and we've looked at countries as a whole and found out what is great about them and even dive deep
into understanding the militaries of these fascinating places
But today here on FTD facts we go into a very specific
Country and this is the country of Hungary to find out how powerful this country actually is in terms of military
Yo everybody. How's it going?
Welcome to FTD facts the channel where I talk about people cultures and places from all around the world
My name is Dave Walpole
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Now today we are going to look at the military of Hungary because we just did a video on
Hungry itself and looked at some great facts of the country and here we generally look at a country and then we like to look
At its military and get a good idea of you know
the country as a whole on top of that guys before we getting started in this video if you guys
Love the Hungarian content and you want more of it either military or about the country itself?
Be sure to hit the like button because if I get over 5,000 likes, I generally do a part two
But let's get started. Shall we so getting right into it?
The Hungarian Defense Forces is the main body of Defense for Hungary and unlike other
militaries around the world which generally have three major divisions Hungary consists of ground forces and only air forces because unfortunately,
there is no Navy as it is a landlocked country and overall Hungary has had a military presence since may 16th of
1848 of course, it's had a major military before that. But this is when it was a major unified military
However for that I'm not going to go into history
Because what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at today's forces and get a general idea of how powerful it is
Over all hungary has a population of nine million eight hundred and fifty thousand eight hundred and forty-five people
approximately the available manpower within the country sits at four million six hundred and fifty thousand with
Approximately three million eight hundred thousand people that are classified as fit for service
but as for the total military personnel, well
It's kind of actually hard to really get a gauge of how many people are within this military because for its total military personnel
it's anywhere between forty six thousand seven hundred people to approximately eighty-five thousand soldiers and of this the act of
personality stin
2016 stated that there was twenty nine thousand seven hundred soldiers
But they stated that at that time they had plans to grow it to thirty one thousand
but i'm not sure if they've done that as of
2018 at the time of recording this video, of course in 2013. It was stated that there was approximately
17,000 people in reserves, but as of a 2018 estimate it states that there's approximately
54,000 so there you can see it's kind of a hard thing for us to tell how much the total military
Personnel is within this country
And as of today the main commander in chief of this military is the country's president, which is Janos Ader
I also should mention that when it comes to Hungary in
2016 under the Global Peace Index
It was nominated 19 of 63 countries for the award for most peaceful countries on earth
Now you may wonder is there conscription within the country of Hungary?
Conscription has actually been established within this country as of 1939
And of course, it still goes today, but only during war times during peacetime
Everything is on a volunteer basis as well for the age of the military
The youngest one can be is 18 to join the military as well
Women are allowed to be part of all forms and ranks of the military and they make up about approximately 19% of the total
army in 2010 in which women had been granted combat assignments in
1996 so now that we've got a little bit of the understanding of the military
Let's take a look into the actual numbers of this military
So let's go straight up into the air and take a look at the Air Force now currently in the country
It has twelve Air Force locations. One of them is a major helicopter base and one is a fighter base
The rest are radar sites air defense sites or strictly air command in Hungary
They have a total air strength of 35 units and when it comes to fighters or attack fighters
They have approximately 14 of them
however
It's really hard to gauge whether or not this number 14 for fighters is actually true because I had read somewhere that in
2015 Hungary extended a lease program with Sweden for 14 fighters for another 10 years and of these 12 of them were
Single-seat Griffins and two others were the dual Cedars. However, I also read that in 2001
They actually purchased and bought 14 of these fighters
So it's kind of hard to say if whether or not they have 14 least and 14
You know actually owned or if it's just 14 in total
however, when it comes to transports the country has approximately 19 the biggest of these is the antonov
an-26 and the Airbus
a319, of course
They have four trainers for the Air Force and a total helicopter strength of approximately
43 and of these helicopters eight of them are classified as attack helicopters in which they use the mill me
24 and for the country
They stated that they had 20 of the eurocopter ec
145 on order or are currently already delivered now, of course, we're gonna go down to the ground forces
But before I do I should mention that
Before 1991 the military of this country was heavily supported by the Soviet Union
However, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, of course they had to do a lot of cutbacks
They sold a lot of Tanks and closed a lot of air bases and ground bases as well
And although their forces may be cut down believe it or not. It still does have quite a bit because in total they have approximately
164 combat tanks in which they use the t-72 as their main battle tank
Of course only 32 to 34 of these are in use with the rest of them being in reserve as well
they do have a bunch other than which they only use for target practice and
unfortunately for these 272 s I'm not sure how many if any of these are the upgraded versions with the
125 millimeter cannon as for armored fighting vehicles they have approximately
1123 with the btr-80 being there armored Fighting Vehicle
They are actually the third largest operator of this vehicle in the entire world. Currently they state they have about 600 of them with about
598 of them being modernized keep in mind there is also a lot of them that are classified as unlisted
They may actually have more because an unlisted amount are designed for medical use and of course nuclear biological and chemical missions
Further self-propelled artillery hungary has zero
But they do have 300 towed artillery in which they use the 152 millimeter m1
9:55 howitzer in which they have 300 of those and it finish it off for their ground units
They have approximately 65 rocket projectors now. Like I said, the country really doesn't have any form of Navy
They don't have any major crafts like, you know aircraft carriers
They don't have cruisers destroyers or Corvettes or anything of that nature
however, the country does state that they do have three minesweepers that they use in rivers and they may actually also have some
Patrol boats that the army uses as well as for rifles
the main armament of this country are the a
K63 which have been modernized to the de and M F versions they also from time to time
We'll use the m4 but for machine guns
They use the American
M249 saw and the PKM now here is a very important question now because this country was at one point part of the Soviet Union
Does hungry have any nukes?
Well, the answer is no as a matter of fact, hungary has also been very Pro on anti nuclear
Use and has condemned countries like North Korea from using them in the first place as well
they are very Pro on nuclear disarmament and they have gone to the extent to ban the production of
Fissionable material within the country as well. They've also been a major contributor to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty
Which they signed in 1970 as well in 2013
They also signed the Arms Trade Treaty which regulates the international trade of conventional weapons and again ratified it in
2014 and with all that information we may think that Hungary is a smaller country in numbers
but the one thing we should mention is that it does have a lot of friends because
Firstly it's been a member of NATO since March 12th of 1999
Which actually makes it a very powerful ally with 28 other countries, that's a good thing and also as of May 1st
2004 it increased its alliances with other European countries by joining the European Union and speaking of money
Let's talk about the budget of this particular army in
2017 the budget for the hungary defense sat at approximately
350 billion HUF which in turn was approximately 1.2 1 billion u.s
Dollars which made the budget of the defense sit at 0.9 four percent of the GDP of the entire country
Which was actually far below the recommended NATO requirement of 2 percent thing is although that might seem pretty low
They plan to increase that to 1.4 percent by
2022 and as for today Hungary has about 700 soldiers deployed around the world as well
They have been a major part of operations in Afghanistan Bosnia the Congo
Cyprus Egypt, Georgia Kosovo, Lebanon Mally Somalia, and of course Western Sahara
Which means that Hungary is influencing peace, not just within its own country, but multiple countries around the world
So there you have it guys that is a look at the defense forces of Hungary and how powerful this country actually is
What are your thoughts on this military and would you in fact join it yourself?
But other than that guys, my name is Dave WAP
And I just want to thank you guys for all tuning in and learning especially my reoccurring viewers, you know
you guys are great to
expand your mind and really learn about many different places around the world whether it be
military or just the countries itself
Now that being said if you guys want more topics and videos around Hungarian content
Well, then you gotta hit those like buttons because like I said, we get over 5,000 or whatever
We just got a lot of likes then
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We got other videos for you to check out also at the end of this video, too
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Feel free to give me a follow send me a message and send me some recommendations for future videos to do
but either way
This is you and me learning about the great military power of Hungary and how powerful this country actually is
Surely maybe a smaller military but Hungarian owes that diplomacy and striving for peace is a quest that many other countries
Strive for as well for the soldiers in the group of the Hungarian Defence Force may know how to fight
But they remind us that although you may be strong. You are always stronger with the connections around the world
Thanks for watching, alright, so here's some other videos that you should check out
Did you miss our first video talking about Hungary itself on top of that?
I got a nice European playlist of other European countries that you might want to check out
Feel free to take a look at that. Other than that
We got tons of military videos for you guys to look into be sure to look for those and on top of that
We'll see in the next one. Bye