Celebration of the Hungarian National Day at the Combined Air Operations Centre in Torrejon

• A delegation of the Hungarian Embassy headed by Ambassador Katalin Toth participated in the military ceremony

The Hungarian Ambassador to Spain, Katalin Toth, accompanied by the Hungarian Defence Attaché, Colonel Sandor Tilaji, visited this morning the Combined Air Operations Centre  to commemorate the Hungarian National Day.  

The Hungarian delegation was received on arrival at the CAOC by the Commander-in-Chief of the Unit, Lieutenant General Fernando de la Cruz. After a brief working dispatch, the commemoration of the Hungarian National Day took place with the traditional act of raising the Hungarian flag.

In his speech, Lieutenant General De la Cruz congratulated the Hungarian delegation on the celebration of the Hungarian National Day and thanked the Hungarian Ambassador in Madrid for her country's contribution to the permanent CAOC airspace surveillance mission in the southern flank of the Alliance, underlining the additional effort undertaken by CAOC personnel since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine.

During her speech, the Hungarian ambassador thanked the organization of the event in commemoration of the Hungarian national holiday and the support provided by Spain to the permanent mission of surveillance of the Alliance's airspace for the benefit of the welfare of European society. The ambassador highlighted her country's commitment to collective defense, especially since the process of change initiated in 2017 to modernize the Hungarian Armed Forces to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Combined Air Operations Centre Torrejon (NATO)

The main mission of the Combined Air Operations Centre Torrejon, under the direct command of a Lieutenant General of the Spanish Air Force, is to plan, direct, coordinate, supervise, analyse and report on air defence operations in southern Europe, with the resources that nations assign to the Alliance in peacetime, following the guidelines of NATO's Air Component Command, on which it depends.

The Spanish Armed Forces make an important contribution to the mission carried out by this centre. Some 120 Spanish military personnel serve in the CAOC itself, as well as in the National Support Element (NSE) and the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) Unit.