Back from Afghanistan
Minister at Lešť (June 21) Minister of Defense Martin Glváč
traveled to Central Slovakia to watch soldiers from the 12th Mechanized Brigade in Nitra during their certification exercise at the Lešť Training Facility. “What I have seen today served to solidify my belief that our troops are excellently trained to serve effectively within NATO forces anywhere in the world,” said Glváč at the end of the exercise. According to the Minister, the Nitra unit has met all the demanding certification criteria required by NATO standards, and is thus deployable in international crisis management. “I would like to commend the commanding officer, Lt. Col. Štefan Acsai and his battalion for work well done in the course of the affirmation process. I believe that the soldiers from this unit will represent a valuable asset both internationally and domestically, in dealing with natural disasters” said Glváč praising the troops from Nitra. “Well-trained military professionals is what we can proudly declare here and now. I remain confident that progressively we will be adding modern systems to go along with our high-quality personnel, which we are unfortunately lacking today due to insufficient funding,” said the Minister adding: “Along with the Chief of the General Staff we are succeeding in mobilizing internal reserves, which the troops will benefit from shortly – even this year.”
(June 19) The Sliač airfield witnessed a late night arrival of Slovak soldiers returning from the ISAF mission in Afghanistan. Altogether 172 professional soldiers were deployed at the Kandahar airfield in a multifunctional engineering company, a guard unit, in the ISAF command structure, and in NSE, OMLT and EOD teams. The Slovak contingent was met at the airbase by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Jaroslav Vývlek along with the Commander of the Slovak Land Forces Mjr. Gen. Ján Salaganič. The troops were then transported to the Institute for Lung Medicine in Nová Polianka where they will spend the next five days under routine medical
● On June 18, 2012 the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic Miroslav Lajčák visited the Slovak contingent in the UNFICYP mission. Along with the Slovak Ambassador to Cyprus H.E. Anna Tureničová they were officially met by the UNFICYP political representative Lisa Buttenheim, who thanked the Deputy Prime Minister and the Slovak troops in UNFICYP for contributing to the peace process on the island and for their outstanding work. ● Bratislava hosted the main planning conference for NATO’s Capable Logistician 2013 exercise. The event was attended by 140 experts representing 12 armies and 15 other organizations. The exercise will take place next year in June and Slovakia will be the host country. “We will utilize the areas of the Military Training Facility in Lešť and the Sliač airfield, in close cooperation with the Armed Forces Academy in Liptovský Mikuláš,” said Col. Miroslav Pelikán, the Director of the Multinational Logistics Coordination Center based in Prague. Pelikán will also command next year’s exercise, which will be the largest event of its kind in over a decade.
New Rector Takes over in Liptovský Mikuláš (June 22) Minister Martin Glváč inaugurated Brig. Gen. Boris Ďurkech, PhD. to become the new Rector of the Armed Forces Academy (AOS) of Gen. M. R. Štefánik in Liptovský Mikuláš. The ceremony was attended by the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff Mjr. Gen. Miroslav Kocian, rectors and their deputies of other Slovak universities, representatives of the diplomatic corps, of state administration bodies and of the Liptov municipalities, members of the AOS Academic Senate and Scientific Council, and other AOS staff.
● A tactical exercise of the guard unit preparing for deployment to the ISAF operation coded Dismounted Patrol commenced on June 18 at the training facility in Veľké Ozorovce. The goal of the exercise is to prepare the troops for duties awaiting them at Tarin Kowt in the Afghan province of Uruzgan. ● On June 19-20 a meeting of six countries participating in the Functional Airspace Block Central Europe (FAB-CE) program took place at the Command, Control and Reconnaissance Brigade in Zvolen. The agenda of this encounter, the first on the territory of the Slovak Republic included the evaluation of the functionality of the new LARA system that was tested on all civil-military stations of AirSpace Management Cells in Central Europe. ● On June 20 the Georgian Ambassador to the Slovak Republic H.E. Alexander Nalbandov and the Policy Director of the MoD Boris Pittner jointly opened a photo exhibition called Georgians in ISAF at the MoD Club in Bratislava. “Our participation in ISAF expresses the EuroAtlantic ambitions of our country,” emphasized H.E. Nalbandov.
The Chief of the General Staff of the Slovak Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Peter Vojtek was also pleased by the performance of the troops: “In such a complex exercise, flawless cooperation among various parts of the Slovak Armed Forces is crucial. Today the land forces were given air support by their counterparts from the Air Force in the form of the MiG-29 fighter.” Lt. Gen. Vojtek expressed his satisfaction that the certification exercise was also attended by the former Chiefs of the General Staff, Gen. Cerovský and Mjr. Gen. Mikluš, as well as by a representative of the Club of Generals of the Slovak Republic, Gen. Honzek. “I´m pleased with their interest in the matter, since we are developing our Armed Forces on the foundations built by them in the course of their active duty in the Armed Forces,” said Vojtek. The successful certification of the 12th Mechanized Battalion confirmed the unit’s readiness to be included in the NATO Response Force (NRF) in 2013.
supervision, including quarantine and medical exams. They will also be provided a psychological care program tailored to the needs of professional soldiers returning from foreign missions. The homecoming ceremony for ISAF SLOVCON troops will be held on June 29, 2012 in Michalovce.
Central Europe To Cooperate More Closely (June 18-19) Opportunities for defense cooperation were the topic of informal ministerial discussions among the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, held in the Austrian town of Frauenkirchen. At their first meeting in this format, State Secretary Miloš Koterec joined other Defense Ministers of the Central European Regional Defense Cooperation in expressing an interest to develop multilateral cooperation on the basis of EU membership, which will be extended to Croatia next year.
● On June 20 the commander of the Prešov Helicopter Wing, Col. Miroslav Korba met with the German Ambassador to the Slovak Republic H.E. Axel Hartmann, who was accompanied by the Military Attaché Lt. Col. Lars Ukerwitz. Both diplomats expressed their gratitude for the Prešov wing’s participation in the renovation of German military graves.
Slovak Iron Men (June 20) The MoD’s Institute of Special Medicine and Training Lešť hosted the 8th annual Iron Man competition. Selected soldiers from the Armed Forces competed with Ministry of Interior troops, Prison and Justice Guardsmen and Customs and Financial Administration specialists under the watchful eyes of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Jaroslav Vývlek. Each of the 28 Iron Man candidates representing four Ministries had to master 10 events. In the end the 2012 Iron Man title went to staff sergeant Juraj Lipták from the Trenčín Territorial Military Administration. Lipták is a former member
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of the army sports team Dukla Trenčín. He is also World and European Champion in sprint canoeing in the men’s K4 200m. Lt. Tomáš Bibík of the Žilina Special Operations Regiment finished second, while staff sergeant Tomáš Barborík of the Nitra Air Defense Brigade came in third.
June 18th – 24th 2012