In this volume we summarize the results of our work carried out in the priority research area titled „Effects of climate change on security and application of military force”. that has been completed within the framework of the Tender No. TÁMOP-4.2.1.B-11/2/KMR-2011-0001 titled „Researches aimed at defending critical infrastructure”. Those studies are published that clearly proved during the two-year long research project that the subsidies provided by the European Union can be, and must be, used in the area of home defense. We hope that the results disclosed here could contribute to the improvement of the safety of our soldiers.

The project was started at the same time when Zrínyi Miklós National Defense University was dissolved and National Public Service University was established. Unfortunately, these events did not facilitate the dynamic start of the program and the three-month delay accumulated at its beginning accompanied it until its completion.

The fact that the program can be considered successful in spite of the above is due to the devotional, often superhuman work of our colleagues - instructors, researchers and administrative staff. In a work of this volume, excellence of professional work is not enough; if it is not accompanied with the enthusiasm of project administrators and financial experts, its realization will be hopeless.

Goal of the project was to consolidate and, if necessary, develop the critical mass of human capacity needed for pursuing R&D activity of international standards in the area of defending critical infrastructure, and support the innovation in these areas.

In relation to the Decision No 1982/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council dated 18 December 2006, goal of the project was to collect, adapt and disseminate knowledge, and to create new technologies and knowledge that contribute to guaranteeing the security of the citizens against such threats as e.g., terrorism, calamities and crime while, at the same time, respecting the basic human rights - including the right for private life.

The project focuses to four especially important research areas: fail-safe „self-healing” infrastructure sub-systems with high reliability; integrated management of data originating from different sub-systems, distributed calculations in the sub-systems and safe communication between the sub-systems, and sustainable improvement of the level of security by the cooperation between the system of state institutions, operators, owners and citizens.

Optimal and coordinated use of existing technologies for the benefit of the security of citizens, and facilitating the cooperation between the service providers and users of the solution of civil security are important from both system theory and cost effectiveness points of view, so the project is realized through the cooperation of a civil and a military university pursuing educational and research activities in the subject area.

Altogether 112 instructor-researchers, 30 experts, 28 prospective instructor-researchers and 33 foreign experts have participated in the implementation of the project. They undertook to write 132 domestic and international articles, to prepare 11 books, to submit 4 patent applications, to deliver 140 presentations at different conferences, to develop 43 studies and strategies, and to write 70 scientific studies in other topics in the time period of the project.

Special Research Area (Kiemelt Kutatási Terület - KKT) that is introduced herein has focused to areas of research that have significant bibliography abroad but only a few publications are available in this country. Although the climate change is a „popular” topic, but so far only a few experts have studied its effect on applying military forces. A publication titled „Climate change and military power” needs to be mentioned here that was published in 2010 under the wing of the Strategic Defense Institute (Authors: Laszló Kohut, József Koller, Gabor Lévay, József Padányi). This way of thinking was continued when the two-year research project was started.

The project team consisted of 3 persons who were Doctors of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 6 PhD doctors, 2 candidates for doctoral degree and 5 university students; altogether there were 31 persons who undertook that they would participate in the work. Our results are impressive even from quantitative point of view. We organized two domestic conferences where our researches delivered 18 presentations. We also introduced ourselves abroad three times where we indicated that we carried out active research in this area by means of another three presentations. We published 24 articles (of these, eight ones were published in foreign languages), we completed three volumes of studies, and an on-line bibliography. In my opinion, it is an outstanding result that - in cooperation with the staff of the Sanitary Engineering Department of Pollack Mihály Technical and Informatics Faculty -, we completed the instrumental examination of all the articles of clothing that have been brought into service by the Hungarian Army.

Cooperation was very wide even beyond the aforementioned organization. During the research we worked in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, with the different organizations and units of the Hungarian Army, with representatives of the civil sphere - inducing some small and medium sized companies - and with the representatives of institutions of higher education. We worked close together with the staff of the Chemical Protection Excellence Center of the NATO (Vyskov, Czech Republic).

The most important goals of the KKT were to synthesize the known effects of climate changes, systematize the open issues, and adapt the results that have already proven to be effective to Hungarian conditions by exploring the results available in the domestic and international literature. Our definite goal was to increase the security of our soldiers in all areas of life from mission assignments and defense against disasters to the challenges of the day-to-day life.

In order to achieve these goals, we conducted research in the following areas:

• Processing the domestic and international literature, and organizing the knowledge in a data repository;
• Facts of climate change, theories and scenarios;
• Experience gained in applying military force in the area of defense against disasters;
• Changes in threats represented by disasters caused by the climate change;
• Challenges in NBC defense represented by climate changes;
• Improving the CBNR defense of fighting vehicles as a response to challenges represented by climate changes;
• Changes in the energy supply of the Army;
• Technical assets and climate change;
• Healthcare aspects of global climate changes;
• Effects of extreme climatic factors prevailing in operational areas on the psychic - mental performance of soldiers;
• Physiology aspects of the effects of extreme ambient temperatures on military performance;
• Security challenges represented by the climate change in the northern region;
• Using renewable energy sources in the Army;
• Security and environmental issues related to the depletion of fossil energy sources;
• Effect of transport on the environment. Opportunities for decreasing motor vehicle emissions in the Hungarian Army;
• „Green barrack” program;
• Opportunities for renewing facilities managed by the Ministry of Defense (Opportunities of applying methods of green architecture, and alternative energy sources);
• Effect of air, precipitation and soil related changes on security;
• Secondary effects of the global climate change on the security of Carpathian basin;
• Effect of the global climate change on the defense of critical infrastructure facilities;
• Effect of the global climate change on agriculture;
• Effect of climate changes, warming and extreme weather conditions on the application of technical assets and on their operation, repair, maintenance and life cycle;
• Effects of extreme ambient temperatures on military clothing; directions of selection and development of military clothing;
• Effect of the changes in natural background caused by the climate change on battlefield camouflage.

The project also provided opportunity to update institutional strategies and, in some cases, developing new ones. In this way the talent support, sustainability, quality assurance, education and research development, and HR strategies of the university and its Code of Ethics have been developed.

Overall, the performance of the KKT is considered good. We achieved results in several areas that can be used during the development of the Hungarian Army so that our soldiers can do their difficult but honorable duties under more secure conditions.

József Padányi