The Minister of Defense, about the American anti-drone system in Romania: “We are testing it and it will be integrated” / The advantage over “traditional weaponry”

Minister Ionuț Moșteanu stated, on Friday, on Digi24, that the Merops system came “from the American partners” and is currently undergoing “integration tests with NATO command and control systems” in Romania.

The Minister of Defense specified that the anti-drone system “has been in Romania for some time, for about two weeks, we are testing it and it is to be integrated into the operational systems and operational plans”.

“We also announced last week, on Wednesday, when there was talk of the withdrawal of the Americans, that we have this system. Here, the relationship with the Americans is working, it's very fine. They even gave us this very good system, successfully tested (…) in Ukraine. We are going to work together with them to connect it, so to speak, to the other NATO systems and include it in the operational plans”, declared Ionuț Moșteanu.

He explained that “the difference is that in Ukraine these systems are not interconnected and under NATO command”, while in Romania, a NATO country, “there are a little more rigor from this point of view”.

The official said it was an “intercepting drone” system.

“A cheaper solution than traditional solutions, cheaper on “cost per hit”, as they say in English, the cost to take down a drone is much better than with traditional tools, so to speak, or with traditional weaponry,” the minister added.

“The real tests are in Ukraine”

Ionuț Moșteanu said that, in Ukraine, this equipment is used “very successfully”.

“The real tests were in Ukraine and are still in Ukraine. The equipment is used very successfully there. The tests that are being done here and in Poland are, as I said, integration with the NATO command and control systems,” said the Minister of Defense.

He drew attention to the fact that “when we talk about air defense and against drones, we need as many systems as possible – as many as are available, as many as we can afford.”

Asked if the system was brought to the country “at the expense” of Romania, the minister replied: “For now it is from the American partners. There are things that are done in NATO structures and in the NATO command and equipment that comes through the NATO chain, and we have a very good bilateral partnership, this strategic partnership, and the bilateral relations we have with the United States, the collaboration with the United States army, and this equipment comes from the United States.”