In our previous analysis, we reviewed NATO’s GDP-proportional 1.5% defence infrastructure target and its potential implications for infrastructure development in Hungary. This article shifts focus from the level of possible commitments to their substantive implementation: it examines how NATO allies within the EU have implemented dual-use (civil and military) infrastructure developments in practice, and what realistically transferable solutions Hungary can draw knowledge and practical experience from.

The examples below rely exclusively on publicly available EU project data, examining primarily transport infrastructure developments carried out with EU funding.[1]

Implementation Models of NATO Allied EU Member States

In recent years, several EU Member States have implemented infrastructure investments intended for civilian use, specifically designed on a “dual-use” basis, meaning they must simultaneously meet civilian transport needs and military mobility requirements. In practice, several implementation models emerge that are also adaptable from Hungary’s perspective.

1. Reinforced Transport Corridors (Roads, Bridges, Overpasses)

Across Europe, the reinforcement of transport corridors is typically achieved through the targeted elimination of structural bottlenecks – above all by strengthening bridges and viaducts – in order to ensure that key TEN-T axes are suitable for both high-volume civilian freight transport and the movement of heavy military convoys.[2]

These developments typically aim to increase the load-bearing capacity of bridges and viaducts along key TEN-T axes. Bridge and viaduct reinforcement programmes are underway in Poland (A2 motorway), Italy (A2 Friddizza viaduct, A7 Binasco viaduct), Slovenia (A1 motorway, SIRIUS programme), Finland (Route 29 bridge at Tornio), Sweden (E22 Helge bridge) and Romania (Prut River Ungheni bridge). The dual-use development of entire transport corridors is also a proven model: Lithuania treats the Via Baltica A5 corridor as a military deployment route as well, Belgium is converting the N49 into the E34 motorway, the Czech Republic is planning the D35, and Slovakia is designing the Via Carpatia route for dual use. Poland enforces military load requirements in urban settings and on new expressways as well, while in Finland, emergency airfield functions have been integrated into the civilian transport development infrastructure project elements at the Kelttu junction.

2. Strategic Hubs (Railway Nodes, Terminals, Airports, Border Crossings)

In addition to transport corridors, numerous dual-use investments target transport hubs where relatively well-calibrated parameters and preconditions – such as train length, rolling stock profile, or air traffic capacity – determine whether military operations can be conducted despite otherwise technically modern infrastructure.

A recurring element of railway developments is, for example, the systematic adaptation of networks to accommodate 740–750-metre-long train compositions. Germany achieves this along the North Sea–Baltic axis through the modification of bridges, passing loops and marshalling yard elements; Belgium and the Netherlands have strengthened staging capacity near North Sea crossing points; and Italy has increased track lengths at several trainstations to establish the conditions for dual use. In the development of loading and intermodal capabilities, the projects of Lithuania (Kaunas Palemonas loading facility), Latvia (Rail Baltica, Salaspils terminal), Finland (Oritkari junction) and Estonia (EstMilMob package) are particularly noteworthy.

Airport investments consistently focus on airside infrastructure – aprons, taxiways, fuel supply systems – rather than on passenger terminal development. Such developments are underway in Poland (Rzeszów-Jasionka, Wrocław, Katowice), Lithuania (Kaunas), Estonia (Tallinn) and Croatia (Franjo Tuđman Airport). Railway border crossing developments have also become a significant dual-use project category in their own right: at the Hungarian-Slovak-Ukrainian junctions (Záhony, Čierna nad Tisou, Eperjeske) and at the Romanian-Ukrainian and Polish-Ukrainian crossings, developments are aimed at increasing capacity, reducing clearance times and supporting both civilian and military logistics.

3. Resilience and Innovation

Numerous projects strengthen resilience through system-level developments and alternative transport modes. In Portugal, for example, WAM-based airspace surveillance modernisation simultaneously improves civilian aviation safety and military air traffic control; Denmark has eliminated constraints on the movement of oversized military equipment through railway capacity expansions in the vicinity of Copenhagen Airport; France is making a reserve inland waterway logistics route available through the modernisation of the Moselle Canal; and Spain is supporting the development of capabilities for extraordinary transport tasks through the coordination of railway and motorway sections.