Drones, tanks & helicopters – border police and army exercise near Nickelsdorf

The police and the army held a large-scale exercise on Thursday at the Burgenland-Hungarian border crossing at Nickelsdorf. 370 police officers and 100 soldiers as well as Hungarian officials were deployed. Police students represented migrants who wanted to cross the border. The purpose of the exercise was, according to Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), “that pictures like 2015 will not happen again”.

In the presence of Nehammer and Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP), media representatives were shown in four scenarios which means the border guards have at their disposal. The migrant actors were observed by drones, followed from the air with a helicopter of the Interior Ministry and with a Blackhawk of the Federal Army.

In the latter scenario, heavily adjusted officers from mission units moved in to prevent an excreted crowd from messing across the border, and even put on gas masks. The reason for this measure was the use of tears and flue gas at the Turkish-Greek border. When a contingent of soldiers also came in with protective masks and a general-purpose “Pandur” wheeled armor that opened a mobile wall that the migrant performers could not get past, the “situation” was settled. A water cannon and a tactical communication vehicle from the police were also available for the exercise.

Tanner pointed out how important it is to practice together, because when soldiers are deployed, other soldiers have to learn the procedures together with the police. She praised the “perfect cooperation between the executive, the interior ministry and our army”. The exercise had been planned for a long time – before the Covid 19 measures began – and will now be carried out under difficult conditions.

Nehammer emphasized that the exercise now focuses on the third zone of three-zone security. In addition to the support of the local authorities at the EU’s external borders and the cooperation with the neighboring countries in the Balkans, this is to secure their own border. He praised the cooperation with the Hungarian authorities, with whom there is a trusting relationship. On the other hand, there was criticism of Turkey: the Interior Minister accused the political ministers of increasingly bringing refugees to the EU’s external border. In this context, Nehammer spoke of “provocative behavior”.

“The exercise was not about creating dissuasive images – it was about a professional cooperation between the police and the army to protect our borders, because those who don’t prepare run the risk of being overwhelmed by the events,” emphasized Nehammer.

Gerald Tatzgern, head of the Center for Combating Trafficking, said there were signs of increasing migration pressure. According to this, there are around 120,000 migrants in Greece, and there would be a further 20,000 refugees in the Western Balkans. Tugs had used the almost unhindered freight traffic even in Corona times. Up to 100 migrants have been discovered in the loading areas of trucks, some of whom were transported under very precarious conditions. Nehammer also reported attempts by tugs to tunnel the Hungarian fence on the border with Serbia.

The exercise was criticized by SPÖ spokesman Robert Laimer. He accused Secretary of Defense Tanner of a “show policy”. In doing so, she “wants to distract from the disaster she has started about the future tasks of the ÖBH”. Austria needs “a well-equipped army, for our soldiers, in professional cadres, in the militia and, above all, for those serving on the ground”. “The united opposition has therefore tabled a parliamentary petition, which will soon go online, to draw attention to the importance of our constitutional institutions such as the Armed Forces and to take the population along with it,” announced Laimer. “Not for exercise purposes, but for the everyday life and the future of our republic and the Austrian Armed Forces.”