Romania plans to build its own unmanned aerial vehicle plant, allocating around €200 million under the SAFE mechanism — a European program offering up to €150 billion in loans for arms purchases for European and Ukrainian defense industries. This was recently announced by the country's Minister of Economy, Radu Miruță.
According to Defense Romania, The minister stressed that the plant's construction both signals Romania's readiness to adopt modern military trends and serves the practical purpose of reviving its long-stagnant defense industry.
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"We need to close the gap between the Defense Ministry's demand for advanced technologies and the current state of the Romanian defense industry," Miruță emphasized.
The key point is that Romania intends to build the plant in partnership with Ukraine or other European Union companies. Ukraine's advantage lies in its unique ability to test innovations in the challenging conditions of the battlefield.
This is not the first time Romania has expressed interest in building a factory in partnership with Ukraine. In July, local media reported that Romania's Defense Ministry was seeking an agreement with Ukraine to produce drones domestically for later export to other European countries. In fact, the discussions focused on the potential localization of production.
Back then, the main obstacle to cooperation was Romania's lack of funding, so the project's launch was scheduled for 2026, subject to approval of the new defense budget.
It is currently unknown whether the funding from the SAFE program will have any impact on accelerating the implementation of this plan.
It is also worth noting that in August, Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal met with his Romanian counterpart, Liviu-Ionuț Moșteanu, to discuss industrial cooperation, specifically the production of interceptor, FPV, and long-range drones.
"We discussed the possibility of using the SAFE mechanism to launch joint projects for technology exchange and the launch of Ukrainian production in Romania," Shmyhal emphasized.
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