Military Equipment and the National Defence Industry
Supreme Defence Council approves plan to purchase military equipment in the coming decade
România Internațional, 02.08.2017, 13:37
The Supreme Defence Council Tuesday approved the Plan for military equipment procurement in the next 10 years, amounting to roughly 10 billion euros. The document had been withdrawn from the agenda of the previous meeting of the Council, held on July 4, because it was not in line with the national political agreement to earmark 2% of the GDP for the defence sector. This agreement was signed in early 2015, at the initiative of President Klaus Iohannis, by all political parties in Romania.
According to a news release issued by the Presidential Administration, the revised Plan is a multiannual schedule of procurement projects, in line with the Strategy on equipment procurement for the Romanian Army and with the Programme for restructuring, developing and equipping the Romanian Army until 2026. The Romanian Army needs a consistent and sustained allocation of resources, because the underfinancing of the defence sector would severely affect the fulfilment of core missions and the Armys operational capacity, the document also reads.
The Presidency also mentions that in May this year Parliament approved the start of contract awarding procedures under 8 major military equipment procurement projects, exceeding 100 million euros each. In the implementation of these programmes with planned multiannual funding, the national defence industry will also be involved. According to the Defence Minister Adrian Tutuianu, these programmes include the purchase of Patriot missile systems from the USA and of another 36 F16 multirole fighters. Tutuianu recently said that these purchases will strengthen Romanias defence capacity, consolidate NATOs eastern flank and reinforce the 20-year long strategic partnership between Romania and the USA.
The estimated cost of the Patriot missiles, including technical support and the related equipment to be bought by Bucharest stands at 3.9 billion US dollars. According to the Defence Minister, the other programmes are related to the purchase of multi-role corvettes, of systems of mobile anti-vessel missile launchers, of 8×8 and 4×4 armoured personnel carriers, of long range surface-to-air missiles, of a short range air defence system, of a multiple long range rocket launcher, as well as the upgrading of combat vehicles.
(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)
