Three C-17 III Globemaster transport aircraft are operating from Pápa Air Base under Hungarian nationality mark but are maintained by the NATO Heavy Airlift Wing (HAW).

Hungary sent a 300-strong logistics unit to Iraq in order to help the US occupation with armed transport convoys, though public opinion opposed the country's participation in the war.

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the HDF drove Habsburg forces from the country in the Spring Campaign of 1849, but was defeated by an Austro-Russian offensive in the summer.

The central element of the emblem of the Hungarian Defence Forces is the Turul bird with extended wings holding the sword of King Saint Stephen in its claws.

[17] The Hungarian tribes of Árpád vezér who came to settle in the Carpathian Basin were noted for their fearsome light cavalry, which conducted frequent raids throughout much of Western Europe (as far as present-day Spain), maintaining their military supremacy with long range and rapid-firing reflex bows.

The Hungarian knight army had its golden age under King Louis the Great, who himself was a famed warrior and conducted successful campaigns in Italy due to family matters (his younger brother married Joanna I, Queen of Naples who murdered him later.)

King Matthias favoured ancient artillery (catapults) as opposed to cannons, which were the favourite of his father, Johannes Hunyadi, former Regent of Hungary.

Public opinion[citation needed] attributed Eger's success to the all-Hungarian garrison, as the above two forts have fallen due to treason by the foreign mercenaries manning them.

Under Habsburg rule, Hungarian Hussars rose to international fame and served as a model for light cavalry in many European countries.

During the 18th and 19th centuries hundreds of thousands of forcibly enrolled Hungarian males served 12 years or more each as line infantry in the Austrian Imperial Army.

[20] The Hungarians advanced again and by the end of spring 1849, Hungary was basically cleared of foreign forces, and would have achieved independence, were it not for the Russian intervention.

At the request of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph,[21] the Russians invaded with a force of 190,000 soldiers – against the Honvédség's 135,000 – and decisively defeated Bem's Second Army in Transylvania, opening the path into the heart of Hungary.

[26] Honvédség units (along with the Austrian Landwehr) were considered fit for front line combat service and equal to those of the joint forces K.U.K.

Hungarians as a national group were second only to German Austrians in their share of this burden, experiencing twenty-eight war deaths for every thousand persons.

However, in the Hungarian–Romanian War of 1919 Hungary came under occupation by the Romanian, Serbian, American, and French troops, as after four years of extensive fighting, the country lacked both the necessary manpower and equipment to fend off foreign invaders.

During the 1930s and early 1940s, Hungary was preoccupied with the regaining the vast territories and huge amount of population lost in the Trianon peace treaty at Versailles in 1920.

In exchange for this alliance and via the First and Second Vienna Awards, Hungary received back parts of its lost territories from Yugoslavia, Romania, and Czechoslovakia.

Starting 1 October, the armed forces established a five-year expansion plan with Huba I-III revised orders of battle.

The Hungarian foreign minister, Pál Teleki who wanted to maintain a pro-allied neutral stance for Hungary, could no longer keep the country out of the war, as the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden had threatened to break diplomatic relations with Hungary if it did not actively resist the passage of German troops across its territory, and General Henrik Werth, chief of the Hungarian General Staff made a private arrangement - unsanctioned by the Hungarian government - with the German High Command for the transport of the German troops across Hungary.

In the late summer of 1941, the Hungarian "Rapid Corps" (Gyorshadtest), alongside German and Romanian army groups, scored a huge success against the Soviets at the Battle of Uman.

A little more than a year later and contrasting sharply with the success at Uman, was the near total devastation of the Hungarian Second Army on banks of the Don River in December 1942 during the Battle for Stalingrad.

On 28 December 1944, a provisional government under the control of the Soviet Union was formed in liberated Debrecen with Béla Miklós as its prime minister.

All procedures, disciplines, and equipment were exact copies of the Soviet Armed Forces in methods and material, but the huge costs collapsed the economy by 1956.

While most major military units in the capital were neutral during the fighting, thousands of rank-and-file soldiers went over to the Revolution or at least provided the revolutionaries with arms.

However, there were 71 recorded clashes between the people and the army between 24 and 29 October in fifty localities; these were typically either defending certain military targets from rebel attack or fighting the insurgents outright, depending on the commander.

Large sums of money were saved that way and spent on feel-good socialist measures for the population, thus Hungary could become "the happiest barrack" in the Soviet Bloc.

Popular opinion grew very negative towards the Hungarian People's Army and most young men tried to avoid the draft with bogus medical excuses.

Hungary has sent a 300 strong logistics unit to Iraq in order to help the US occupation with armed transport convoys, though public opinion opposed the country's participation in the war.

[35][36] New purchased and ordered equipment so far includes new CZ BREN 2 assault rifles (to be manufactured locally), helicopters, transport and trainer aircraft, tanks, armored vehicles, radars and surface-to-air missiles.

[42] This year Kongsberg and Raytheon were awarded a 410 million EUR contract by Hungary for NASAMS surface-to air missile systems.