One of the current areas of defense cooperation between Romania and the German defense giant Rheinmetall includes a project to build a gunpowder production plant. The project has an estimated budget of €500 million, and the facility is expected to begin operations two years after the construction starts.
However, due to specific bureaucratic hurdles in Romania, the practical implementation of this project has been "on hold" for a full year, despite the fact that €47 million have already been allocated from the state budget. This was reported by Defense Romania.
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Citing Romanian Defense Minister Ionuț Moșteanu, the authors explain that the main issue has been securing land for the construction of the plant. This problem has even triggered a separate investigation in the country's parliament.
Interestingly, despite these bureaucratic delays, Rheinmetall still plans to deepen its cooperation with Romania in other promising defense projects.
One of those is the modernization of four existing Oerlikon GDF-003 35mm anti-aircraft artillery systems in service with the Romanian armed forces. The €328 million contract, signed in 2023, aims to upgrade these platforms to a functionality similar to the Skynex system — particularly by modernizing their fire control equipment.
Additionally, Rheinmetall is also offering its KF41 Lynx platform in Romania’s ongoing tender for 246 infantry fighting vehicles, a project valued at €2.5 billion.
This all comes as Rheinmetall acquired a 72.5% controlling stake in the Romanian military equipment manufacturer Automecanica Mediaș SRL in 2024. The company has since been rebranded as Rheinmetall Automecanica and will focus on manufacturing and servicing military trucks, infantry fighting vehicles, and air defense systems.
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