It only saw combat in a foreign country once during its existence, which was assisting the Soviet Union in crushing the Prague Spring.

After the 1948 creation of the HPA the allies and the Soviet Union permitted it to have a 65,000 strong Army and an Air Force with 5,000 personnel and 90 aircraft.

After Stalin's death, de-Stalinization swept through the HPA quickly leading to the resignation of Farkas as Minister of Defence.

During this period, the Soviet Army invaded Hungary due to the revolution which was taking place.

In 1959 they began rebuilding the HPA and the new Hungarian leader János Kádár, asked for 200,000 Soviet troops from the Southern Group of Forces to stay in the country, which led to the government to rely more on the Soviets leading to the deterioration of the HPA.

In 1968, the Soviet Union and four other member states of the Warsaw Pact, building on the doctrine of “limited sovereignty”, invaded Czechoslovakia in gross violation of the principle of non-interference in internal affairs (Article 2(7), Chapter I of the United Nations Charter).

The Hungarian military units were ordered on July 27, 1968, at 3 o'clock in the morning, to be fully operational and to carry out the mobilization of the reservists.

The aim was to create an army that was better suited to the size and military geographical position of Hungary smaller than the existing one, and with less but more modern equipment.

This was the so-called "RUBIN task", which was in all respects a modernization and reorganization policy that aimed to: This policy eliminated the division level organization in both forces, and thus, four corps were created, three land forces and one for domestic air defence, replacing eight divisions.

[2] In 1981 Danube Flotilla received six AM type modern minesweepers, and by 1988 it consisted of 700 men and eighty-two vessels, including ten Nestin MSI (riverine) boats.

Soviet troops relaxed their control during the era of Mikhail Gorbachev, and Hungary later became a Democratic Republic.

These included the Internal Security Troops (Belső Karhatalom); the State Security Authority (Államvédelmi Hatóság, ÁVH)'s Security Police (disbanded in 1956, replaced with the MI Department III), the Frontier Guard or Border Guard (Határőrseg, HO), wearing army uniforms, 15,000 strong; and the Workers' Militia (Munkás Őrseg, MŐ).