Hungarian defence minister: Modern army requires cooperation with defence industry, IT sector

Cooperation between the military, the national defence industry and the IT sector will result in modern army meeting requirements of the 21st century, the defence minister told a conference on Tuesday.

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, speaking on the first day of the Info Space Conference held in Balatonfured, in western Hungary, said that while the defence industry had a leading role in innovation, its discoveries spreading to the civilian world, the opposite also happened with “startups breaking into the world of the military” thanks to opportunities offered by digitalisation.

At the conference organised by the Informatics for Society Association, the minister said the task of rebuilding a strong and effective military had started from scratch after the Fidesz government assumed power in 2010, with developments based on the European defense industry making the Hungarian army NATO-compatible.

Hungary, he noted, is already among NATO countries spending 2 percent of GDP on defence. But given the war in Hungary’s neighborhood and the pressure of illegal migration, more than 2 percent must be spent on defence-related tasks, he added.