Main functions and tasks:

• collects, preserves, researches and publishes the artefacts and documents of Hungarian and Hungarian-related military history; initiates the legal protection of artefacts of historical value and importance,
• carries out tasks of authority and authorisation, and provides expert’s reports in its field of competence; takes part in the national system of cultural supervision regarding historical artefacts that belong to its sphere of collecting,
• carries out tasks concerning the professional supervision of collections, relics, exhibition sites and memorial sites maintained by military organisations,
• keeps contact with Hungarian and foreign museums, museum organisations, and other institutions, organisations and individuals in possession of Hungarian-related military historical relics or other artefacts of interest,
• collects, keeps records of, researches and publishes the artefacts and documents of military history that belong to its sphere of collecting; provides their security, preservation and storing,
• • surveys, reveals, keeps count of and exhibits the artefacts of Hungarian and Hungarian-related military history, both in Hungary and abroad, in close cooperation with other museums and organisations,
• plans and implements activities of museum pedagogy, lectures, courses, conferences and interactive activities in connection with military history; keeps contact with fellow institutions and develops new forms of cooperation,
• advances the cooperation of military history re-enactment organisations, supporting their activities by providing a professional background,
• carries out scientific research in the field of Hungarian and Hungarian-related military history, and publishes the research results,
• coordinates military historical research in Hungary, and takes part in national and international scientific activities,
• collects, catalogues and provides the public accessibility of Hungarian documents, as well as volumes of Hungarian-related special literature published abroad and the literature of the related fields of science. Collects, preserves, researches and provides information about the special literature of military science and military history. Collects Hungarian military regulations, directions and publications,
• carries out research in the fields of mediaeval, early modern-age and modern-age Hungarian and Hungarian-related universal military history,
• secures the continuous activity of the Editorial and Publishing Office of the Military History Quarterly, the scientific journal of the Institution, published since 1888, • contributes to the education of military history of the members of the Hungarian Defence Forces and to the forming of their approach to history,
• has the exclusive rights to collect, preserve and process the documents of the activities of the organisations of the Ministry of Defence and the troops of the Hungarian Defence Forces, as well as other written documents and data media of Hungarian military history,
• collects private documents of enduring value in connection with military history, taken over on the strength of legal regulations or as donations, purchased, or taken over for preservation as deposits,
• keeps records of, provides the secure preservation and the professional treatment of the archival material that had been taken over or collected. Catalogues and provides the public accessibility of the preserved archival material,
• through its Vienna Office located in the Austrian Military Archives, protects the Hungarian interests concerning the treatment of documents preserved by the Kriegsarchiv and constituting the joint intellectual property of the two countries. Surveys, keeps count of, and collects the copies of the Hungarian-related military historical material preserved in Vienna,
• collects, catalogues, preserves and publishes the military-related maps, aerial photographs and the correlated special literature.

(Ministry of Defence)