Romania is looking to collaborate with Ukraine on developing drones through a new European Union defence funding initiative. However, it will take at least seven years before the country has a multi-layered air defence system, according to a government source.
Sharing a 650 km (400 miles) land border with Ukraine, Romania has experienced more than 20 incidents over the past two years, where drones have breached its airspace or fragments have fallen onto its territory. This has occurred since Russia began attacking Ukraine's ports along the Danube, just across from Romania.
Tensions have been rising along Europe's eastern border, after Estonia accused Moscow of sending three fighter jets into its airspace and Denmark closing airports due to suspected drones. This came a week after NATO jets intercepted Russian drones in Polish airspace. Romania also narrowly avoided shooting down a drone.
"We need more air defences, but nobody has them," a Romanian defence source told Reuters.
"For the time being, defence will be asymmetrical, with enormous anti-aircraft costs that could only be borne at the NATO level."
The source explained that Romania has been in discussions with Ukraine, whose drone technology has been “battle-tested on a large scale,” to manufacture drones in a project funded by the EU's 'SAFE' rearmament initiative.
Romania has €16.6 billion ($19.4 billion) allocated under the Security Action For Europe (SAFE) initiative, which Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan stated would support military acquisitions amounting to roughly 1% of national output annually for five years.
Romania's air defences currently consist of F-16 fighter jets, Patriot systems, Lockheed Martin's HIMARS rocket launchers, short-range South Korean Chiron surface-to-air missiles, and German Gepard anti-aircraft guns.
The latter two options are Romania’s most cost-effective for drone defence at present, the source said.
Gepards are deployed near populated areas along the Ukrainian border, but covering the entire border and maintaining these systems would be financially unfeasible.
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U.S. has become a central outside power in the south caucasus, shaping diplomacy, security and energy flows. Its relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia have evolved from similar beginnings into two distinct partnerships that now define Washington’s role in the region.
Iran would retaliate by striking U.S. military bases across the Middle East if it comes under attack by American forces, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday (7 January), stressing that such action should not be seen as targeting the countries hosting those bases.
France and Canada opened new consulates in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, on Friday, stepping up their Arctic presence in a show of support for Denmark, a NATO ally, amid renewed demands by U.S. President Donald Trump to acquire the strategically located territory.
Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine’s energy system early on Saturday (7 January), hitting power generation and distribution facilities with more than 400 drones and around 40 missiles, Ukrainian officials have said.
Winter weather has brought air travel in the German capital to a complete halt, stranding thousands of passengers as severe icing conditions make runways and aircraft unsafe for operation and force authorities to shut down one of Europe’s key transport hubs.
Storm Leonardo hit Spain and Portugal on Tuesday, forcing more than 11,000 people from their homes, as a man in Portugal died after his car was swept away by floodwaters and a second body was found in Malaga.
An attacker opened fire at the gates of a Shiite Muslim mosque in Islamabad on Friday before detonating a suicide bomb that killed at least 31 people in the deadliest assault of its kind in the capital in more than a decade.
Iran and the United States opened nuclear talks in Oman on Friday, with Tehran calling the meeting a good start and both sides agreeing to continue discussions after returning to their capitals for consultations.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for the 6th of February, covering the latest developments you need to know.
France and Canada opened new consulates in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, on Friday, stepping up their Arctic presence in a show of support for Denmark, a NATO ally, amid renewed demands by U.S. President Donald Trump to acquire the strategically located territory.
Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine’s energy system early on Saturday (7 January), hitting power generation and distribution facilities with more than 400 drones and around 40 missiles, Ukrainian officials have said.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for the 7th of February, covering the latest developments you need to know.
U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators have discussed an ambitious goal of reaching a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine by March, though the timeline is widely viewed as unrealistic due to deep disagreements over territory, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks.
At least 31 people have been killed and scores wounded in a suicide bombing at a mosque in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, during Friday prayers, prompting widespread international condemnation.
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