Benko: Army development progresses as scheduled

The development of the Hungarian Armed Forces progresses in line with schedule, the defence minister told parliament's national security committee on Tuesday. In a regular annual hearing, Tibor Benko said that the Hungarian army should become a significant power for the region to guarantee peace, security and stability in central Europe. This requires technical developments carried out in line with a detailed defence and army development programme, he added. The programme dubbed Zrinyi 2026 was launched in 2017 and repeatedly updated since then to address new challenges, he said, adding that planning is already under way with an outlook for 2030-2032.