The Republic of Moldova wants to produce interceptor drones. Maia Sandu: “We will try to attract investments”

The Republic of Moldova intends to develop production capabilities of interceptor drones to combat devices that violate the national airspace. To this end, the Chisinau government is preparing legislative changes to allow public-private partnerships and foreign investment in the defense industry. The statements were made by President Maia Sandu during the June 6 edition of the “Report” podcast from Newsmaker.

Maia Sandu said that Moldova needs to strengthen its anti-drone system and jamming system to be able to combat Russian drones that violate the national airspace.

“We need to start producing drones that can intercept and shoot down drones. (…) We requested the Government, especially in the context of the latest events, to prepare the amendment to the legislation. Because, on the one hand, the state must produce these drones and anti-drones, but on the other hand, we must also allow the private sector. For example, our state does not have these new technologies, we do not have experts, because we have not trained such experts. But there are foreign investors who have these technologies, only that the law does not allow today…(…) We will change the law and we will try to attract investments, first of all to make these public-private partnerships, but maybe we will also succeed in attracting some foreign investments. Because we need to have these interceptor drones that fight the drones that are coming more and more frequently to our country”, she declared.

Maia Sandu specified that the Republic of Moldova could also call on Ukraine, which has developed one of the most advanced drone industries, amid the Russian invasion. “We will try to get the technology from them to the extent that we have the capacity, because in order to be able to do something with that technology, you must first create a minimum expertise team here to work with,” said the head of state.

We specify that, since the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, dozens of drones associated with the attacks launched by the Russian Federation have flown unauthorized over the airspace of the Republic of Moldova, and some of them have fallen or exploded on the territory of the country. The most recent case of violation of national airspace occurred on May 13, when a drone crossed the Republic of Moldova from north to south.