BUDAPEST – Exercise Vigorous Warrior 2024, in conjunction with Clean Care 2024, concluded in Hungary on Thursday, May 9, 2024, with over 1600 soldiers from 35 NATO and Partner Nations participating.
The Vigorous Warrior exercise series is the largest dedicated multinational medical exercise in NATO, organised bi-annually by the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine (NATO MILMED COE, Budapest, Hungary) and a voluntary host nation. Its objectives aim to tackle the most relevant questions of the military-medical realm in a multinational setting, under NATO’s auspices.
"We have demonstrated our capabilities in the field of military medicine by deploying Role-2 military hospital, the Preventive Medicine Team and the Mobile Biological Laboratory. We also experienced the high level of cooperation with other NATO and partner nations, and as the host, the Hungarian Defence Forces have shown the full spectrum of host nation support," said Lieutenant General Attila Takács, Deputy Chief of Defence, responsible for Territorial Defence.
This year's exercise was held in conjunction with the Clean Care chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear exercise in Bakonykúti, Hungary. Dozens of medical units and treatment facilities were deployed for the exercise, which used a complex scenario, with hundreds of simulated casualties per day, to train the provision of medical support of an “NATO Article V” operation.
Exercise Vigorous Warrior 2024, in conjunction with Clean Care 2024, concluded in Hungary on Thursday, May 9, 2024, with over 1600 soldiers from 35 NATO and Partner Nations participating. The exercise series is the largest dedicated multinational medical exercise in NATO, organised bi-annually by the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine - Photo by Pintér Ákos
Exercise Vigorous Warrior 2024, in conjunction with Clean Care 2024, concluded in Hungary on Thursday, May 9, 2024, with over 1600 soldiers from 35 NATO and Partner Nations participating. The exercise series is the largest dedicated multinational medical exercise in NATO, organised bi-annually by the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine - Photo by Schöff Gergely
Exercise Vigorous Warrior 2024, in conjunction with Clean Care 2024, concluded in Hungary on Thursday, May 9, 2024, with over 1600 soldiers from 35 NATO and Partner Nations participating. The exercise series is the largest dedicated multinational medical exercise in NATO, organised bi-annually by the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine - Photo by Pintér Ákos
Participating countries were able to practice the entire process of medical support up to surgical intervention, from planning to actual performance in a realistic environment. They were able to participate in concept development and experimentation, as well as practice and test their interoperability skills with other nations.
The main objective of this year’s Vigorous Warrior was to learn about each other's practices in different countries, to clarify professional language differences and to prepare for modern challenges. The latter included ensuring the mobility of field hospitals and testing experiments such as an epidemic detection system.
One of the key points was the synchronization of the flow of injured, sick people and of medical care processes. On the Hungarian side, the Hungarian Defence Forces Health Centre participated in the exercise with several defence health capabilities, including the Role-2 military hospital, the Preventive Medicine Team and the Mobile Biological Laboratory.
The function of the Role-2 field hospital is to provide first medical emergency care in the area where it is deployed. Its main task is to stabilise the patient's condition, primarily performing life and/or limb saving interventions.
The Vigorous Warrior exercise series dates back to 2011 with Hungary hosting the major event for the third time this year, following 2011 and 2022. This year's exercise was held between Apr. 28 and May 9.