Romanian Army Chief: No Legislation to Shoot Down Drones

The Chief of Staff of the Army, General Gheorghiţă Vlad, stated on Tuesday that the military does not have the necessary legislation to shoot down attack drones that would enter Romania’s airspace, as happened last year. According to the general, this would require the amendment of four laws.

“At the moment, the Romanian Army cannot conduct combat operations in peacetime. An exceptional state, state of siege or state of war must be given. The Romanian Army cannot operate the weapons systems outside the military objectives or the training grounds that we have at the moment”, the head of the Defense General Staff told an interview for Free Europe.

Four laws must be changed: the Law on National Defense, the Law on the organization and operation of the Ministry of National Defense, the Law on the Arms and Ammunition Regime and Law 257/2021 on the mode of action against aircraft that use the airspace of Romania without authorization. One of these laws is taking into account “a new legislative initiative that would allow us to operate in peacetime under the auspices of a military operation.

“In this law (n.r. – Law on the method of action against aircraft that use Romanian airspace without authorization), in article eight, for example, because the drone is classified as an unmanned aircraft, [the military – n.r.] must comply with the same rules if it is fought, i.e.: raise the air police service, let the plane give signals that the national territory or airspace has been violated. And there are four or five stages. (…) Of course, that drone will not respond to all of that, because there is no pilot to see”, explained the chief of the Defense Staff, arguing that the drone or the remains of a drone should not be equated with an aircraft and respond to the legal basis we have at the moment, it must be assimilated to ammunition, to loitering (n.r. remote-guided ammunition), to another means, so as to give the possibility to the one who uses the weapon system to take a decision at the time. “Because the action time is very short from the moment it passed from the airspace of Ukraine to the airspace of Romania”, General Gheorghiţă Vlad explained.

In the interview, the chief of the Defense Staff also revealed d that, last year, the military had another impediment in shooting down foreign drones, other than the legislative one. “There was a lack of means. Only now was the contract signed with a supplier from South Korea”, the general said.

Asked “You mean you didn’t have projectiles?”, he replied: “We didn’t have combat systems. The projectile is part of the employment system”.

Early this month, the new Chief of Staff, General Gheorghiță Vlad, in office since November 2023, made more inflammatory statements, namely he warned that the Romanian Army does not have the necessary law to prepare the population to deal with the expansion of the war in Ukraine, nor to act in proportion to the existing military dangers. Back then, the general said that Putin will not stop here, and that, “if he wins in Ukraine, the main target will be the Republic of Moldova. “