Mod considers several creative options to improve the Hungarian air force’s air transport capability

The ministry of defense plans to buy three commercial aircraft in the first phase to expand the air force’s transport and air evacuation capability learned mno.hu.

The Hungarian government will stick with its current policy to station no more than one thousand troops in foreign missions to support its NATO allies. To be able to adequately service the troops the ministry must improve the air force’s transport capability; one option to achieve that goal would be to obtain Boeing 737 or Airbus 320 commercial aircraft.

This choice would nicely fit in Defense Minister Istvan Simicskó’s recently announced modernization program under the Zrínyi 2026 initiative aiming to boost the Hungarian military defense capabilities.

The air force currently using An-26 light transport aircraft that are over forty years old and are unable to serve several hundred troops currently stationed in Afghanistan and Kurdistan; after the liquidation of Malév, the Hungarian national airline the country has left without national air evacuation capability as well.

Both those commercial aircraft can be modified with minimum effort to fulfill the air force’s transport needs and they can be converted into suitable military transport aircraft capable of carrying hundreds of troops and light armory. Both Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 commercial aircraft maximum total range makes them suitable to transport troops in the whole of Europe, Central Asia, and much of Africa without landing.