Watchkeeper X drones will arrive in Romania, the manufacturer announces, after MApN threatened to terminate the contract
The Israeli company Elbit Systems is preparing to start delivering Watchkeeper X drones to Romania in a contract worth 1.89 billion lei (approximately 428.75 million dollars), the company announced on Monday, after the Romanian Minister of Defense threatened last week to cancel the agreement due to delays, reports Reuters, taken by News.ro.
The contract for seven unmanned aircraft systems was signed in 2022, and deliveries were supposed to begin in 2025.
“Despite the challenges generated by the exceptional security situation in Israel, recognized by the company's customers around the world as a case of force majeure, the project received high priority,” Elbit Systems said in an emailed response to Reuters.
The company stated that the systems are ready to enter the final phase of acceptance tests in Romania towards the end of April, depending on the approval of the Romanian regulatory authorities.
Miruta: “I'm analyzing whether we want to terminate this contract”
In 2022, Romania signed a framework agreement with the Israeli company Elbit for seven UAS Watchkeeper X systems for a total value of approx. 1.891 billion lei, without VAT (about 380 million euros).
MApN then signed the first subsequent contract in 2023, with a 24-month delivery deadline for the first drones, i.e. the summer of 2025. The systems have not been delivered to date either.
“So, until today the penalties that this company has to pay to the Ministry of Defense are somewhere around 60 million euros and they are increasing every day. I am analyzing within the Ministry whether we do not want to terminate this contract, we have this legal possibility, there are some devices that have technical characteristics that, if they are received a few years later, are no longer up-to-date. We have ordered some drones with certain characteristics to arrive in 2025. If they arrive much later late, we might say that it is no longer of interest to receive them”, declared, on April 2, the Minister of Defense, Radu Miruță.
What are Watchkeeper X drones?
The seven Watchkeeper X UAS Systems each include a ground control station and three unmanned aircraft each. Thus, in total there are practically 21 Watchkeeper X drones that must enter the equipment of the Army.
The agreement stipulated that initially part of the production would be done in Romania, and starting with the third contracted system, “the production of all electrical and mechanical systems related to it” would be carried out in the country.
The Watchkeeper X drones are designed especially for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering missions, but they can also be armed with special munitions. In Bacău, a few years ago, a model of the Watchkeeper X drone, armed with two missiles under each wing, was presented.
