The University of Defence held the international conference of “Interoperability 2011” on 3 March 2011 on the topic of Operational Concept and Defence Planning. The conference focused on two spheres of issues: “military operations: lessons learnt applied in military education” and “operation concept as a part of defence planning process”. The agenda included presentations given by the experts of National Defence Academy (LaVAk), Vienna, Austria, General M. R. Štefánik Academy of Armed Forces (AOS), Liptovsky Mikuláš, Slovakia, and University of Defence, Brno, Czech Republic. Some of the Czech Senior Officer Course students participated in and contributed to the conference discussion about particular topics.

Conference agenda in the first period discussed the application of generalised lessons learnt in military operations to military education institutions’ work. The leading presentations included these by LTC Ing. Ivan Majchút, PhD., for UD, prof. Ing. Milan Sopóci, PhD., for AOS and LTC of General Staff Mgr. et Mgr. Thomas F. Fronek for LaVAk. The following section was devoted to the situation in forming and developing operational concepts by the armed forces of contributing nations as the basis for establishing armed forces capabilities in future operations. Principal speeches were delivered by MAJ of General staff Bernhard E. Gruber for LaVAk and COL of general staff (retired) Ing. Pavel Zůna, MSS for UD.

Text: Ján Spišák, photo: Zdeňka Dubová