VIDEO The Minister of Defense and the Chief of the Army, joint conference after the Galati incident. “Anti-drone capabilities are rare” / “We understand the public's concerns”
“The anti-drone combat capabilities are rare and insufficiently existing to cover absolutely any scenario”, said the acting Minister of Defense, Radu Miruță, claiming that this situation also affects other countries, on Friday, in a joint press conference with the Chief of Staff of the Romanian Army, Gheorghiță Vlad.
“We understand the concerns of the population”, declared the head of the Army, in the context of the incident that took place last night in Galati, where a drone fell on a block of flats.
“We are with the affected family, first of all, and we are trying to do everything possible in order to cover all the deficiencies and all the security deficit that not only Romania, but the entire alliance is going through, caused by this action, I could say, reckless of the Russian Federation not only on Ukraine, but also on the neighboring countries on the eastern flank of the alliance”, declared Gheorghiță Vlad.
The general assured that the Romanian Army has “all the determination” and “all the training” necessary to “fulfill constitutional duties”.
“We are trying to manage all these situations so that we can ensure adequate protection. We have an ongoing operation in the Danube Delta area. We have concentrated the main means of striking to protect the populated areas. All firing sectors are planned in such a way as to avoid collateral losses and to have in mind, first of all, the protection of human life”, he also declared.
What the Minister of Defense said
Radu Miruță said, among other things, that the MEROPS anti-drone system “has been integrated, but it is aimed at a different area, in the Dobrogea area, than the one last night, in Galati”.
“It is functional, it covers a wider spectrum of situations than it was covered before, but, as I have always told you, it does not cover all of them. So, after these moves, the number of scenarios in which a drone enters unnoticed or cannot be intercepted is lower, but it is not zero – and this is not only in Romania, not using it as an excuse, but, on a technical level, the anti-drone combat capabilities are rare and insufficiently existing to cover absolutely any scenario”, added the minister.
