Support of the newly acquired defensive systems within the domestic military and industrial environment

ROMANIA’s commitment to NATO for the enhancement to 2.5% of GDP of its defense expenditures, as validated in October 2022, represented a new and very necessary milestone for renewing and re-vitalizing the entire National Defense System, through an overall allotment of over 35 Billion LEI/over 7.05 Billion EURO, wich means 52% more than the 2022 Defense Budget.

”The strategic objective of ROMANIA’s Defense Policy for 2023 – 2026 timeframe involves modernizing and adapting the Romanian Armed Forces to current geo-political risks and challenges, and also strengthening ROMANIA’s relevant role, as a reliable allied member in NATO and EU, and on the strategic partnership with the United States of America” – describes the Defense Budget Preamble

Within such significant Budget increase, a consistent figure is assigned to Endowment Programs dedicated to all components of ROMANIA National Defense System (17 Billion lei/3.4 Billion EURO). These budgetary measures could represent also the turnaround point in reinvigorating and setting a new development path for the National Defense Industry.

One of the benefits of national investments for new equipment and technologies is that it includes also know-how and technology transfers, and aims towards assigning to the National Defense Industry, some parts of these newly acquired systems production and/or life cycle support.

Industrial cooperation with top level weapon systems manufacturers that will provide for state of the art military technologies is in itself a huge benefit, as it sets the grounds for employing local workforce, and also allows for involved employees to achieve the highest standards of qualification.

Another major benefit is that of substantially reducing the length of logistics support lines, by bringing at the national level all the allowable sustainment processes (production, supply, maintenance, acquisitions, and modernizations), and maturing them throughout a 25-30 years of life cycle, for each of the newly purchased defense platforms.

A third benefit would be the Romanian Industry becoming not only a national, but a regional supplier for sustainment goods and services of some of these assets, thus enabling for a part of executed investments to be returned in income to the National Budget.

“Subsequently, it is up to the local Industry to align and to upgrade its capabilities, for answering to the sustainment requirements of respective platforms operator”

In this context, it is worth mentioning some of the projects in wich ROMAERO is involved:

1. Mid-life upgrade (MLU) for the C-27J Spartan tactical airlift fleet, owned and operated by the Romanian Air Forces;

2. Maintenance and overall logistics support for the S-70 Helicopters, that will be delivered by Sikorsky to the romanian MoI-Aviation Inspectorate;

3. Life cycle support for PATRIOT defense systems;

4. Translation to a more flexible maintenance Program, destined to the C-130 airlift fleet.

Of course, together with the benefits detailed above, there are a series of challenges that need to be considered both at the top decision levels, as well as at the execution levels.

The new platforms are of higher technology levels, thus involving serious investments for their support.

Regularly - at the initial stage - this effort is dimensioned and included in the delivery package of the weapon systems, becoming a part of the endowment program. Subsequently, it is up to the local Industry to align and to upgrade its capabilities, for answering to the sustainment requirements of respective platforms operator. This is not at all an easy and smooth process, because of the magnitude of necessary resources, and also due to the extended timeframe for these investments to be returned.

Moreover, the transfer of technology must come hand-in-hand with the applicable authorizations and quality system implementation, placing extra burden on the local supplier shoulders. As new standards, pertinent to the new weapon systems, are becoming applicable, they come with more and more stringent prerequisites that need to be in place within the sustainment Organization.

Last, but not least, when accelerating the process of renewing the defense system assets, necessities as those described above will most probably happen in a cascade. The main goal and total focus will be to swiftly replace old platforms and weapon systems with new ones, for all the components of ROMANIA’s defense forces, but much less consideration would be placed on the ability of local industry to quickly adapt and to become fully capable to support those assets throughout their operational life cycle. Without proper planning of the overall effort at national level, without joining all available infrastructure, manpower, material and financial resources, the big risk would be for local companies not to be able to cope with required transformations, and - for those few who might succeed - to compete against each other, thus spending more time and effort in reaching the same endpoint.

The takeaway from all of the above is that local industries of countries such as ROMANIA might need more coordination and more collaboration, both from the international partners that are providing those defense systems, and also from the national organizations that are approving these acquisitions. We all need to plan and to foresee the “whole picture”, and not only the momentary winning generated by the sellout of defense articles, respectively by the receipt of newly acquired assets.