Romania is weighing whether or not to cancel a $427.2 million contract to purchase drones from Israel’s Elbit Systems as a result of supply delays, Defense Minister Radu Miruta mentioned on Thursday.
The deal, signed in 2022, envisaged deliveries starting in 2025. Miruta mentioned the corporate had requested three postponements, citing power majeure, and that his ministry had accepted the primary two.
He mentioned Elbit had accrued delay penalties totaling about 60 million euros.
“I am analyzing whether we want to terminate this contract,” Miruta informed reporters. “There are some devices that have technical characteristics, which, if they are received a few years later, are no longer relevant.”
Romania, a European Union and NATO member, shares a 650‑km (400-mile) land border with Ukraine and has had drones breach its airspace and fragments fall onto its territory since Russia started attacking Ukrainian ports positioned throughout the Danube from Romania.
Romania’s protection price range for 2026 stands at 2.45% of financial output.
Under the EU’s new rearmament initiative SAFE, which is able to start later this yr, Romania has been allotted 16.6 billion euros ($19.2 billion). The nation plans to spend about 200 million euros on drone manufacturing.
In March, the presidents of Romania and Ukraine signed an announcement of intent to supply Ukrainian protection methods, together with drones, in Romania.
On Wednesday, the Romanian authorities held a business-to-business matchmaking assembly between home protection companies and 15 Ukrainian firms to debate technical cooperation on drone manufacturing.
Miruta mentioned on Thursday that Romania would shortlist Ukrainian drone makers that meet the Romanian military’s necessities within the coming days after which begin industrial talks on potential joint manufacturing.
