Summary
2010 was another intensive year with regard to the Austrian Armed Forces’ commitment, particularly concerning international operations. Due to the developments within KFOR and the long-delayed steps to Gate 1 and Gate 2 as well as because of the shortfalls in manpower, particularly at the HQ KFOR, caused by early troop withdrawals of mainly NATO nations, which took place during the streamlining interim phase, there was a need for early force deployment, which deviated from the original phase planning. A similar situation evolved with EUFOR ”Althea” where, since autumn last year, strong troop contributing nations, like for instance Spain and Poland, discontinued their contributions on very short notice and withdrew their troops. In both operations Austria stayed its course and largely replaced the forces of other nations, in order to ensure stability and the uninterrupted continuation of these operations.
In the course of further developing the military capabilities, the first alert exercise for preparing the C-130 for STRATAIRMEDEVAC took place on 13 December 2010, which showed that the procedures leading up to the start were in line with international standards.
With the now foreseeable discontinuation of the security assistance operation after the Schengen enlargement (AssE/SchE) by the end of the year, a very moderate amount of resources will become available for other operations.
In the coming year, the Austrian Armed Forces will be able to continue their international operations. What remains uncertain, however, is whether the EUBG 2011-I will be operational, since, in any case, it will require a larger number of additional specialized forces to remain on stand-by until it is deployed. Binding these forces and assets will have to be taken into account when planning future operations. Depending on the results of the ongoing discussion of whether or not the current defence system should be maintained, the conditions and possible changes which still have to be defined can only be assessed when the results are available.