Gases from the Black Sea, at the mercy of the Russians? The general who founded Romania's elite forces explains what weapons we absolutely need

Romania does not have sufficient means to defend its critical energy infrastructure off the Black Sea. Politicians, regardless of their color, have refused to allocate money to equip the Naval Forces, which now makes us vulnerable. In this situation, General (r) Marius Crăciun warns that Romania would have no way of dealing with acts of sabotage or direct attacks by the Russians on the Neptun Deep platform.

The frigate King Ferdinand was used in missions in the Mediterranean Sea. PHOTO: Romanian Naval Forces

Romania is vulnerable at sea and cannot defend its investments of billions in the platforms in the Black Sea, where it exploits and will exploit natural gas. Practically, Romania does not have modern ships and submarines to defend its gas pipelines that transport the gas extracted from the maritime exploitation perimeters.

The problem is that Romania has completely neglected the Naval Forces, which have become the Cinderella of the army. Although the military has repeatedly requested the acquisition of modern battleships and submarines, absolutely necessary to deter any hypothetical adversary and to protect the coast of Dobrogea, the politicians, regardless of their color, have refused each time and have always found other and other priorities.

In 2009, Romania won the case with Ukraine, at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and thus obtained the majority of the disputed continental shelf in the Black Sea around Serpi Island. It is an area rich in oil and natural gas deposits, which later allowed the exploration and exploitation of these resources.

The problem is that Russia, if it wins the war, could very well not recognize the decision of the international courts in Romania's case with Ukraine. And until the same international courts adjudicate a dispute between Russia and Romania over the same maritime platform, the Russians could take advantage of their obvious superiority at sea. In this scenario, Romania would be unable to oppose Moscow, if the Russians attacked Neptun Deep.

Even if it didn't get here, Russia would still have other ways to give us a lot of trouble. The Russians could organize acts of sabotage and attacks on Romania's critical energy infrastructure, blowing up gas pipelines or damaging them. Platforms off the Black Sea would likely be the most vulnerable.

General (r) Marius Crăciun, the one who laid the foundations of the Special Operations Forces in Romania, sounds the alarm in this regard and explains, in an analysis for “Adevărul”, the causes and solutions of the problem.

NATO helps us, but we also have to help ourselves

Romania's chance, says the general, is the fact that it is part of an alliance like NATO, which deters any hypothetical enemy. But that does not mean that Romania or other states that are part of the North Atlantic Alliance should rely exclusively on it and neglect their own army.

“The deterrence value of a strong alliance like NATO is always very high. When the alliance is united, the member countries also spend enough resources to create a credible army for each of those countries to deter a potential aggression. What does a credible army mean? It means enough capabilities, generally defensive, but also offensive, to deter a potential aggressor. And here there is no more confusion. The potential aggressor for us in Europe is Russia, both through direct military instruments of force, missiles, guns, aviation, and through less direct instruments, such as hybrid actions”says General Crăciun.

Romania's big problem is that it neglected its army, in the sense that none of the politicians who were temporarily in charge of the country paid attention to the needs of the army. This is how it came to be that the Romanian Naval Forces in particular have no modern battleships and no submarines. The soap opera of the two corvettes, which the politicians promised that Romania would acquire, ended badly.

From two corvettes we were down to one, and the submarines were forgotten

Finally, after numerous delays, Romania decided to purchase a new light corvette, TCG Akhisar, from Turkey. The purchase was approved by CSAT in March 2025. This will be the first new combat ship after 35 years, and the contract was already signed in November 2025. However, experts say that this corvette will not solve all problems.

“We as a country and as part of the Alliance and the European Union had this obligation, to equip our army, an obligation which, unfortunately, for some 20 or so years was somewhat neglected. All our politicians said to stay calm that there is no problem, that NATO is coming and takes care to defend us. The message was totally incomplete, incorrect, inducing a state of complacency and putting the vigilance to sleep. The politicians did not speak much more than Article 3, Article 4 of the Washington treaty that regulates the situation in NATO, articles that say that, first of all, all member nations are obliged to create sufficient capabilities to be able to defend themselves”, explained the general.

General Marius Crăciun

Thus, for decades in a row, Romanian politicians have turned their backs on the army and left the impression that they are not concerned about the security of their own country.

“The Romanian army was almost abandoned for many years with a very small budget. Military equipment was rarely bought, and certain fields were forgotten, neglected. This is how we currently have some holes in our defense capabilities, especially in the naval forces. If we have a credible capability in the air force, if we also invest in drones, and if we say that something has been done in the land forces, the naval forces have been forgotten. messed up badly with some projects that have not been completed until now, with frigates, with corvettes“, says General Crăciun.

Politicians also scoffed when it came to submarines. Although there was initially talk about the purchase of submarines, later it was considered that they were not justified. General Marius Crăciun has a completely different opinion.

We need submarines and naval drones like air

“The existence of submarines would be vital, ideally there would be three. Of course, some will say, it is also possible with two, and the failure option would be that one would be good. But the operational cycle of a simple submarine affects the reaction capacity. Why do I say this? Submarines are difficult to detect, so the enemy's forces must constantly take additional protection measures. A submarine cannot currently be replaced by anything. There has also been talk of building some mini-submarines. We could even build a factory somewhere in the west of the country where the hulls of these submarines would actually be made, and then they would be taken to another factory and fitted out. That wouldn't be bad either“, adds the general.

Because of this, Romania is really vulnerable at sea, just as the gas platforms in the Black Sea are uncovered. Submarines and maritime drones would largely solve the problems.

“Currently, we have limited capabilities for underwater combat. I think that massive investment must be made here, including drones that can operate on the surface of the sea or underwater. Drones that can be guided and create that state of ambiguity to make any enemy unable to determine exactly our capabilities and defense capabilities. All submarine cables, because Romania has more and more submarine cables, are vulnerable. I understood that we are connecting with Azerbaijan for the transmission of electrical current, but we also have underwater pipelines, because they are quite vulnerable. We need many surface sensors, which we need a lot of drones to cover the Romanian coast. We don't have much, we can cover some of these holes with the naval forces. and capabilities they have right now, they can't cover it”General Crăciun points out.

He gives the example of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, blown up at the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Even though Russia had the technology and submarines, it was unable to prevent sabotage of the pipeline. Romania, which does not have any submarines or modern ships, would be really vulnerable if Russia decided to make trouble for us.

At the mercy of the Russians

“Submarines, sensors, surface sensors, now you see that even when you have technology you are still vulnerable. You are even more vulnerable when you have nothing at all. At Nord Stream, the diver who placed the explosive charge sank 65 meters. There are not many divers capable of such a thing. These underwater actions are difficult to achieve, they must be monitored even from the surface. That requires a modern boat, a ship, maybe a drone, an aircraft to keep everything under observation“, says the general.

Even if Romania and NATO have sensors and can monitor the targets, underwater things are a little different. Romania should, says General Marius Crăciun, stop wasting time and stop taking such big risks.

“With all the array of sensors that the North Atlantic Alliance and Romania have in the Black Sea, you can't hide a ship. It's found, you can't hide a drone, an aircraft, they can be seen. But underwater you need a lot of extremely sophisticated sensors and it's very, very difficult to manage. So, yes, there is this vulnerability, but there are also countermeasures. But everything costs. The question is what do we do? Do we do things in the Romanian style, do we lock the horse, or do we take measures before? So far, they have managed to get some capabilities. They have a certain deterrent capability compared to the length of the coast and the area that needs to be protected economic importance from the Black Sea. That is, you are investing billions, you are trying to extract billions of production that some consumers in the European Union have already started paying for, but you do not have the capabilities to protect it“, concludes General Marius Crăciun.

The Neptun Deep platform is particularly vulnerable. Romania could, until it succeeds in equipping its naval forces, tighten relations with Turkey, the NATO country that has the most military ships in the Black Sea.