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The article deals with current state of infantry fighting vehicles training and evaluates current status of training documentation (mainly based on own experience). It focuses on the development of crew training mainly based on example of wheeled IFV PANDUR II. The goal of the paper is open a professionally discussion on the topic the IFV´s crew training. Mainly evaluates training maps, which the author regards as essential.

In May 2017, Islamists of the South-Philippine Separate Groups of Abu Sajyaf and Maute occupied Marawi City in Mindanao. Five-month fighting was attended by more than 3,000 armed forces against about 1,000 jihadists. Dozens of foreign fighters took part in the fighting on the Islamists side and confirming the pan-Islamic ethos of the Islamic state's ideology in this part of the world. Philippine troops were not prepared for the character of fighting in urbanized environment against motivated and experienced militants. The shortcomings were manifested in the conducting of operations in a heavily built-up area, but also in low-level coordination and limits of capabilities of the technical intelligence. It was decided to create Special Operations Command to which all Philippine special purpose forces are subordinated. The conflict experience has initiated a change of doctrinal approach that focuses on air support to reduce losses due to inaccurate bombing and acquisitions of high-tech reconnaissance and weapon systems.

Personnel Recovery intervenes to almost all areas of planning, preparation and implementation of military operations. One of the important areas of the personnel recovery system is the intelligence area. This article describes on the operational level the reasons and basic methods of intelligence support of Personnel Recovery during joint military operations. It introduces selected intelligence disciplines and explains the suitability of their use in the various Personnel Recovery phases. It also describes the intelligence activities related to post-reintegration phase and outlines the basic issues associated with the intelligence support of Personnel Recovery.

Participation of experts form NATO member and partner countries in security situation development trends together with related military implications is meanwhile the newest mean of member states engagement onto NATO Defence Planning. In one hand this possibility is a way to gain findings from national experts and in other hand an opportunity enabling countries to enlarge knowledge and experience of national participants in order to development of similar activities at national level. Moreover there is an opportunity to present activities of nations´ institutions working in the similar field as well as national findings linked to security trends and defence planning. The author concludes that the Czech Republic has not yet formulated its own defence planning process, and suggests the possible effects of this condition

The article deals with selected international treaties, current agreements and international cooperation initiatives in the field of non-proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons, in which the Czech Republic is represented through specific bodies or ministries. There is also a general description of the view and the specific military approach. The involvement of the MoD and the Czech Armed Forces in NATO structures enables to influence the strategic decision-making in the area of CBRN and thus support the current trends concerning forensic analysis, sampling of CBRN samples and response to new trends in the field of WMD elimination.

Partisan and paramilitary groups operating on Colombian soil have been representing a serious regional security threat for the last fifty years. The most successful attempt to conclude a peace treaty between the government and the insurgents is represented by the peace process that took place between 2012-2016. This process resulted in the agreement between the colombian government and the guerilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejército del Pueblo. This paper deals with the dynamics of the of the peace processes between the government and guerilla groups and analyzes the factors contributing to the escalation and deescalation of the conflict and factors that enabled or on the contrary disabled a successful demobilization of the insurgents. The analysis of the demobilization uncovered a number of factors indicating a contradictory acting of both sides of the conflict. While the adversaries were negotiating the peace agreement, in the same time they were violating the previous agreements. Such behaviour was caused mainly due to the absence of a strong sponsor.

Light Infantry units are primarily equipped with the Iveco light armored vehicles in the Army of the Czech Republic. Similar type of vehicles was acquired by the armies of some other NATO members. Armored LMVs represent a new category of equipment and no specific tactical procedures have yet been created. The aim of the text was to develop general tactical light infantry procedures for the current training needs of units with Iveco LMVs. In the text, combat battle drills on vehicles and tactical procedures for the use of light units equipped with the LMV Iveco have been created. Combat deployment experience and results of live simulation were main source of information for development of LMV tactics and procedures. Presented procedures can be used for training of units equipped with LMV Iveco. The use of light armored vehicles also showed the design limits of this technique. LMVs Iveco cannot fulfill the role of primary vehicle of light infantry units on a conventional battlefield mainly due to their low level of endurance.

The aim of the text is to present the approach to assessing the military potential of the state as well as the will or possibilities to be used to achieve national strategic interests or power objectives. This approach is methodologically based on the sectoral analysis of the state's power potential and its possible projections in the construction and use of armed forces. The described and used approach in the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic is applied to the current Russian Federation and its military or power activities

The article provides partial results of the research Strategic Analysis Methods applicable within the Defence Department of the Czech Republic. This research addresses a low level of use of strategic analysis methods in the development of strategic and conceptual documents of the department. In the years 2017 and 2018, interviews with the processors of these documents were carried out and the problems related to the use of strategic analysis methods in sector planning were analysed. In particular, the article analyses the content and utilization process of stakeholder analysis method, SWOT analysis, future scenarios, benchmarking and GAP analysis.

This article analyses frozen Conflict in separatist region of Transnistria in the light of recent crisis on Ukraine. Despite standing in the shade of Ukraine, the importance of Transnistria has been once again highlighted by Russian support to separatist movements in post-soviet area. Hence text also argues, that by precise analysis of important agents involved in Transnistrian conflict, such as Russia, Ukraine or Romania, we can better understand not only current development in this "de-facto state", but also put annexation of Crimea (or war in eastern Ukraine) into context. On the other hand, influence of Russian military presence in Transnistria on Ukraine war effort is also important and deserves to be closely studied.

This article deals with challenges for the defence policy and strategy of the Czech Republic and their further adaptation and. It outlines set of recommendations for ensuring its armed forces relevance and their long term sustainability. The article reflects debate during the international conference Defence and Strategy organised by the Centre of Security and Military Strategic Studies of the Defence University and held on 15-16 June 2015 in Brno.

The European Union is interested in ensuring the security of African countries in the region of Sahel because some of the threats originating from this region can potentially endanger its member states. With the deteriorating situation in northern Mali, the EU has decided to become more active in this country through Common Security and Defence Policy missions. The aim of this article is to introduce and subsequently assess the contemporary policy of EU in Mali. Particular attention will be paid to the European Union Training Mission in Mali and European Union Capacity Building Mission in Mali, which have so far produced rather mixed results. The article will also focus on the EU strategy in the Sahel region and partly on the EU counterterrorist and counterinsurgency activities in Mali.

The article deals with the use and future prospects of the international cooperation for the development some of Czech Armed Forces capabilities in the field of military medicine. It has no ambition to address this issue in its entirety, but only contains an analysis of some of the current formats and initiatives of international cooperation in the field of military medicine, with the justification of their origins and a brief evaluation of their contribution. Part of the article is also a proposal for possible measures to improve the development of medical capabilities in the framework of international cooperation.

The article thematically completes a series of articles which subject was to present outcomes of analyses focused on national as well as NATO and EU capability planning processes. Synthesis of analysis outcomes resulted in conceiving a methodologic framework for military capability assessment, whereas the first phase of this framework, i.e. configuration of the national capability requirements database, has been already described in the previous edition of the Czech Military Review. So this article details final phases of the proposed methodological framework, which are set of reference units and mechanism for matching capability requirements against current state capabilities. The key outcome of capability matching phase is identification of capability shortfalls and their subsequent prioritisation. The level of priority is expressed as a degree of operational risk and relates to an expected intensity of operational engagement of force units in military operations. This approach stems from the principle of the capability assessment process which shall be carried out by military experts and which deals exclusively with an expected military end-state in operations.

The aim of the article is to recall the thoughts of war strategists on how to conduct military operations during the Cold War and to present the issue of operational maneuvering groups. Their use was a new conceptual framework of offensive operations led by the highly mobile military units of the Warsaw Pact in the 1970s and 1980s. Based on the analysis and comparison of historical sources, a set of information and knowledge from the field of military art is presented here as well as a more comprehensive view on the tactical, operational and strategic context of the offensive operations on the European battlefield. Their impacts were also essential in the way of training of troops and education of military officers in the former regime.

This article deals with the Czech defence industry and its role in the defense policy of the Czech Republic. The basic goal of the text is a short introduction to abilities of the Czech defence industry and answering the question if and how it is able to fulfil the demand of the Czech defence sector for an armament and a military gear. Basic items needed for a military capability of soldiers on a field and the ability to develop and produce them at the Czech territory is mainly examined.

When planning and conducting tactical exercises of units and formations, it is often the case that aspects of long-term operations in a chemical, biological or radiological contaminated environments have disappeared from consideration of commanders and staff officers. The reluktance to "complicate the situation" in training may have different causes, but the continuing importance of CBRN defence is indisputable. The article discusses probable commander questions related to the effective management of subordinate units in a contaminated environments. Their answering can help to successfully fulfill defined combat tasks that have been disrupted by the use of enemy weapons of mass destruction, improvised devices containing highly toxic substances, or leakage of industrial hazardous substances into the environment.

The autor responds to several articles published in our Military Review, namely by Prof. František Ochrana, Prof. František Božek, Brigadier Rudolf Urban, Prof. Miroslav Krč, in No. 4/2008, with special appreciation to critical articles by Ing. Jiří Dušek and Lt.Col. Ing František Růžička in the same issue. He tries to find out common denominators of those essays. There are three of them: economization tied with rationalization, risk management, and information compatibility. As necessary he regards to unite those denominators both at the level of decision making officials and at the level of their subordinated elements, by means of e.g. working teams as a guarantee of coordination, so that the adopted Long-term Vision of Defence Department could be actually realized.

The paper deals with the issue of the purpose, creation and practical use of scenarios during operational concepts development. The scenar- ios reflect the fundamental characteristics of the environment in which the military missions will be conducted in the next 15-20 years. The paper defines the type of scenarios useful for creation of operational concepts and requirements that must be met for a successful process of scenarios development. Further, it describes the process of scenarios development, the main risks associated with this process while suggesting the possibility of reducing the rate of those risks.

The article analyses activities of geographical support in missions abroad. The proposals for adjustment of processes and equipment during a preparation phase of perspective deployment of mobile geographic support unit were created on a basis of author's knowledge and experience, studies of documents and a discussion of participants in missions. The ISAF mission (currently Resolute Support mission) represents a model on which a future form of geographic support of national contingents in missions abroad is being developed. The brought up results represent a recommendation for further development of geospatial support of AČR in missions. The main conclusion is defining a need of position for a geographer within a mid-sized contingent and at a same time making use of a new mobile geographic set GeMoZ-C, which already complies with a majority of mentioned remarks.

The article deals with the evaluation of the state of oil security in the Czech Republic and measures, which should be taken to increase it. The attention is payed to the importance of the crude oil in the energy mix of the Czech Republic, its oil dependency and international cooperation in the area of oil security. Further, it focuses on the emergency stocks of the crude oil and petroleum products and to their use and to the oil demand restraint measures.

The general trend of weight gain, decreasing physical fitness and health complications in the general population is also reflected in the recruitment of new candidates. Their physical readiness is expected to be high. The aim of this study was to verify whether or not the physical condition of the soldiers entering the army during the 2000-2017 test of physical fitness actually deteriorated or not. The results for the assessed period in the monitored parameters indicate that some components of physical fitness are copying the general trend and showing a slight deterioration. Yet, in general, it can not be said that the fitness of new soldiers is declining, as some of its components show a slight increase.

The paper deals with general aspects of problems of biological warfare agents and toxic industrial biologicals understanding from the point of view of protection against their effects and a possibility of specialists´ cooperation. The aim of the paper is to point to some problematic aspects of biological defense realization in connection to experiences from their historical usage. With the help of analysis of current strategical and operational documents and synthesis of available experiences from operational deployment of medical service and chemical corps units variants of optimization of current state have been proposed. These ones are main conclusion of the paper.

The article focuses on the issue of foreign fighters from the Balkan peninsula, and examines the measures that have been taken by governments in the region to combat it. The author asserts that the first ISIS losses and the thinning of the first wave of enthusiastic recruits accompanied with the first disillusioned returnees and changes in public policies and in public discourse (political narrative and narrative of Islamic communities, mass media) caused the unprecedented decline in the number of new recruits.

The article focuses on confronting the Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah with Israel in the field of energy. The aim of the article is to analyse the importance of energy in strategy of movement Hezbollah generally and specifically in confronting with Israel and motives and methods of the energy strategy of the Hezbollah. The primary method of Hezbollah action is to use or threat of violence consisting in threatening to attack on the Israeli energy sector to defend Lebanese energy wealth and deter its enemy from production of gas and oil in the disputed waters of the eastern Mediterranean. The main motive of Hezbollah's activities is especially strengthening of stable energy supplies and Israel's accusations of aggressive energy policy towards Lebanon.

The establishment of the Permanent Structured Co-operation (PESCO) in defence in 2017 is one of the most important European initiatives of recent years, aiming at enhancing effectiveness in addressing security challenges and advancing towards further integrating defence cooperation within the EU framework. The article describes the genesis of PESCO and explains its functioning, including its legal framework, objectives, the role of the main actors and the dynamics of the whole process. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the scope and strength of the more binding commitments that the participating Member States have decided to fulfil in the name of strengthening Europe's defence under the umbrella of the Common Security and Defence Policy.

Personnel Recovery is currently an inseparable part of all NATO military operations. This article is focused on the development of the Personnel Recovery in military operations from the Second World War to the 2003 Iraq War. It describes the meaning of the concept of Personnel Recovery, introduces its basic aims including the clarification of its importance in military operations. It focuses on the identification of conditions that determine the existence of the rescue system. In the historical context, it describes the circumstances of development of the recovery of isolated personnel, including its incorporation into a functional system. It identifies and analyzes events that, in terms of their importance and ability to influence subsequent development, represents milestones in the organization of Personnel Recovery and from them describes the measures taken.

The paper deals with the ministerial officials of the Czech Republic. Using large-N survey on the Czech ministerial officials and in-depth interviews with them, we are exploring the role of social scientific knowledge, which use ministry officials. Based on results of the empirical research are drawn comparative conclusions concerning the ministry of defence and other ministries.

The aim of the article is to bring out results of the comparative analysis of NATO and EU defence planning processes. The comparative analysis was focused on identification of those findings which are identical for both NATO and the EU and which might be also beneficial for optimising the national defence planning process within the Czech Ministry of Defence. From this perspective, the key analysis outcome is identification of similar phases which were found out while comparing respective NATO´s and EU´s planning tools, i.e. J-DARTS and SAEP Process. Even if NATO and the EU are using a different terminology and different approaches to achieve expected results, the substance of respective phases is almost identical. A course of action how to implement the analysis outcomes into the national defence planning process might be the subject of a follow on research.

Today, the word Concept is one of most used terms in the framework of long and medium term of defence management. Concept development as a process is mentioned in significant number of departmental regulations and descriptions of activities of organizational bodies of the Ministry of Defence and General Staff. Concept development and Experimentation is a kind of incantation used when we speak about the development of long and medium term strategic documents. This article comprises the analysis of the legal regulations concerning the development of strategic documents. It analyses the implications of the governmental Methodology of mid-term concepts and Methodology of preparation of public strategies for departmental strategic documents.