Hungarian Defence Forces

The Hungarian Defence Forces, known in Hungarian as the Magyar Honvedseg, are the national military of Hungary. Since 2007 they have operated under a unified command structure, with the Ministry of Defence holding political and civil control and a subordinate Joint Forces Command coordinating the corps. In 2020 the forces had about 22,700 active personnel, and military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime. The modern force traces its lineage to the Honved of the 1848 revolution and the Royal Hungarian Honved established in 1867. Hungarian soldiers fought on every front contested by Austria-Hungary in the First World War, and the Hungarian Second Army was destroyed on the Don in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. After the Warsaw Pact era, Hungary joined NATO in 1999 and now contributes troops to international peacekeeping missions, including Kosovo.