Romania Eyes Drone Partnership with Ukraine under SAFE Initiative

Romania is considering a partnership with Ukraine to produce drones as part of the EU's SAFE defense program, drawing on the combat experience of Ukrainian UAVs.

The Gaze reports this, referring to Reuters.

Government sources note that it will take at least seven years to create a fully-fledged multi-level air defense system.

Romania shares a 650 km land border with Ukraine, and in recent years, Russian drones have repeatedly violated its airspace across the Danube, with debris falling on Romanian territory more than 20 times.

The country's current air defense assets — F-16 fighter jets, Patriot systems, HIMARS rocket launchers, South Korean Chiron short-range missiles, and German Gepard anti-aircraft guns — are not capable of fully protecting the entire border, and full coverage will require extremely high costs until NATO support is available.

"We need more air defences, nobody has them," said a Romanian government defence source. "Until then, defence will be asymmetrical with huge anti-aircraft costs which could only be covered on a NATO level."

Under the SAFE program, Romania will receive €16.6 billion ($19.4 billion) over five years, which will allow it to make military purchases amounting to approximately 1% of its production capacity annually.

Thus, Romania's negotiations with Ukraine are focused on establishing domestic production of drones to strengthen Romania's defense capabilities and using EU funding for modernization.

SAFE is a new EU financial instrument that will support member states wishing to invest in defense industrial production through joint procurement. This initiative will finance urgent and large-scale investments in European defense technologies.

As The Gaze informed earlier, EU member states have fully applied for €150 billion in SAFE loans to boost defense production, with Ukraine eligible to participate in related projects.