Defense Minister Radu Miruță says that the Romanian-Ukrainian project on the production of drones could be put into practice in the coming months.
The future drone factory in Romania should constantly update its technology, Defense Minister Radu Miruță told RFI.
“If you build some cutting-edge drones today, half a year from now you might just be using them to crack nuts with them, because the technology half a year from now will be different, you won’t have a competitive edge on the battlefield.” explains the deputy prime minister, writes Mediafax.
Radu Miruță says that “specific for this project is an additional condition of those from the European Commission, in addition to our projects, the 21 projects through SAFE, the European Commission said: we put 200 million euros on the table, if you manage to do drone co-production with a Ukrainian partner. Of course we are also interested in this project”.
15 Ukrainian companies came to Romania
The Minister of Defense states that technical discussions regarding Ukrainian drones have taken place so far: “We have started concrete discussions with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, because there it is a question of the Government that will grant licenses to the private entity that will come to produce in Romania. Last week, after the discussions I had with the Minister of Defense from Ukraine, 15 Ukrainian companies came to Romania. At the Ministry of Defense we had discussions with these companies strictly on technical matters. We want to understand the characteristics of the drones that these companies can produce in a future partnership with Romania”.
The Deputy Prime Minister emphasizes that it is not MApN that determines the Romanian companies that will take care of the drone project: “We are not currently responsible for the economic part. I know that there was a whole discussion in the public space, why the Romanian companies did not also participate. The answer cannot be given by the Ministry of Defense. The Ministry of Defense entered this circuit to find out what the drones made by these companies look like and what is the technical interest for the drones we need”.
Project realized in six months
Asked what his vision is in this project of Ukrainian drones, Radu Miruță answered: “My thinking is that the Romanian army should be more involved in this process, in the sense that it benefits from the information that is exclusively at the MApN level. At the MApN level there is information from radars, from tanks, from F-16 planes. The essential thing in 2026 is to use all this data intelligently, from the analysis of which to make a quick decision. This information is not to be given to anyone, this information exists at the MApN level and I think we have to leave from there, this information to be used in a secure manner by MApN. I see the scenario where in various points in Romania, where we now have other defense methods, there will be drones that will rise automatically, when a quick software analysis of all these data parameters will manage the respective order”.
The Minister of Defense estimates that the drone project can be realized in six months: “My estimate is somewhere around half a year. From a software perspective, things can be done faster, but of course, it will take some time to negotiate the commercial parameters.”
