Weapons and ammunition have always been a source of
\nincome for manufactures, as people have always been driven by the urge to wage
\nwars. The emergence of the state meant protecting and favouring the production
\nof weapons, for national security reasons as well as for money-making purposes.
\nThere is no secret that wars have always meant business opportunities and
\ntechnological progress. Cynical and harrowing as it may be, the reality of war
\nhas contributed to the progress of many countries’ economies and the emergence
\nout of the economic crisis, just as it happened in the Second World War.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
At the end of World War Two, Romania was
\nrated as a defeated country. Accordingly, restrictions were imposed on Romania
\nregarding the number of military it was allowed to have and the weapons the
\ncountry could manufacture. However, the communist government in Bucharest could
\nnot give up on its weapons and ammunition production altogether, since partisan
\ngroups in the mountains posed a permanent challenge and the government had no choice other than take
\nit. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romanian weapons industry in late and during the
\n1950s manufactured individual light weaponry, such as handguns, rifles and
\ngrenade launchers. From a military point of view, Romania had joined the Warsaw
\nPact, an alliance set up in 1955 at the initiative of the Soviet leader Nikita
\nKhrushchev. The alliance was made of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the
\nGerman Democratic Republic, Poland, Hungary and the USSR. Being part of the
\nUSSR-led alliance meant levelling the standards for military equipment. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In the early 1960, Romania started distancing itself from the USSR, which, among other things, meant devising a
\nstrategy for the national defence industry. Although a member of the Warsaw
\nPact military alliance, Romania felt
\nthe need to develop such an industry. In an interview he gave in 2002 to the
\nRomanian Television’s Oral History Centre, the President of the State Planning
\nCommittee, Maxim Berghianu, explained the underlying reasons for the emergence
\nof the national weapons industry. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The weapons industry was
\nbooming, and that for two reasons: first, for fear we might be fatefully
\nindebted, lest our friends in the Mutual Economic Assistance Council would play
\ntheir own game with us regarding weapons, and also to avoid being dependant on
\nRussians only. Secondly, apart from supplying the army, it was also important
\nfor exports. And that, because it was the most valuable and best-paid export
\ncategory, in foreign currency. We did not export tanks. We exported personnel
\ncarriers, armoured vehicles, we extensively exported that kind of individual
\nweaponry, AKG assault rifles, grenade launchers. We manufactured ammunition for
\ncannons on a large scale, we also made cannons. We had the 150 mm cannon, with
\na range of 40-50 kilometres. We also manufactured explosive charge,
\ntrinitrotoluene. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Most of the
\nRomanian army’s equipment and military technique were imported from the USSR.
\nAfter the invasion of Czechoslovakia, in 1968, Romania speeded up the process
\nof setting up its own armament industry, with its research-design and execution
\nphases. The Institute of Armament Research and Technology, Ammunition and
\nOptical Equipment was working on ground forces equipment, while a similar
\ninstitution manufactured aviation equipment. Romania thus started to
\nmanufacture heavy weapons such as tanks, armored personnel carriers, howitzers,
\ncannons, fighter jets, rocket launchers and machine-guns, as well as more
\nsophisticated light weapons such as submachine guns and sniper rifles. Military
\nvehicles were also manufactured.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According
\nto Maxim Berghianu, the new project was
\nentirely the initiative of Romania’s new leader, Nicolae Ceusescu, who replaced
\nGheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, a sort of Romanian Stalin, in the country’s top
\nposition:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The plans usually came to us from Ceausescu
\nafter being previously discussed in strategic terms, with military experts. We
\nhad a defense industry sector just like we had a machine-engineering sector.
\nThe vice president of the first was Ceandru, an aviation officer. The plans
\nwere discussed with the experts, but the supreme commander had the final say.
\nOur job was to say if it can be done, if it has potential or not, where it
\nshould be manufactured and what materials were needed to build it. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Aviation
\nwas seen as one of the priorities of the domestic armament industry, a field
\nwith tradition in the interwar period, which was subsequently dropped because of
\nthe pressure put by the USSR. Maxim Berghianu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We
\nrevived the aviation industry. A large factory was set up in Bacau and another
\none in Craiova, while engines were manufactured in Bucharest. Ceausescu liked
\nthe idea of having his own aviation industry. Having an aviation industry meant
\nhaving a modern industry, given all the materials involved and the
\nstate-of-the-art measurement and control devices. At the same time with the
\ndevelopment of the industry building power generation machinery for thermal and
\nhydro plants, we had to develop the electronic and electro-technical industry,
\nwhich we needed to produce high voltage devices. So we set up the Electroputere factory, a modern factory
\nmanufacturing high voltage devices, while we developed the low voltage devices
\nin Bucharest, at the Electroaparataj and Electromagnetica factories. We had to
\nalso work on the electronic and optical industry. The Pipera industrial complex
\nwas designed as a compound.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nRomanian armament industry was a successful project until the early 1980s.
\nHowever, the communist regime’s lack of economic results made it entirely
\nunproductive by 1989.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Weapons have always been a source of income for manufacturers and the emergence of the state meant protecting and favouring the production of weapons, for national security reasons as well as for money-making purposes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":129177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[42588,32441,42589],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-129176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-arms-industry","tag-communism","tag-maxim-berghianu"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n