Equipping the army gets put off every year...indefinitely

Romania has had a plan for equipping its army for a few years now. Said plan is still waiting for the approval of the Supreme Council of Defense (CSAT). A first estimate puts the cost of the plan at 12 - 13 billion Euros. Every year the plan is brought up, and every year the budget allocated to the Ministry of Defense (MApN) keeps shrinking.

The plan includes six strategic programs, two for each branch - aviation, navy and land troops. It has been acknowledged and approved since 2005, but it has yet to be implemented, because, sure enough, the budget allocated no funds for it. Not even one call for tenders was made so far.

In theory, however, the plan is dazzling, stunning. All politicians talk about it as if it actually exists. This spring, president Traian Băsescu said that, in spite of the crisis, Romania can begin outfitting the Army, by taking out loans.

In May, the Minister of Defense, Mihai Stănişoară, said that the Ministry may be required to renegotiate the payment and delivery terms for some of its programs. "However, these are programs which are currently ongoing, but not those of strategic equipment (ed. note: the six programs of the famous plan for upgrading the army)", he said at the time.

Also in May, Mihai Stănişoară said that the acquisition of a multipurpose airplane remains a priority for the Ministry of Defense, in spite of the tight budget for 2009: "The multipurpose plane remains a priority for us and I hope a decision will be made soon on this matter. We are talking about a project which we intend to accomplish by relying on the Ordnance 111/2007, which involves multi-annual loans not featured in the regular budget".

In the first week of September, State Secretary of the Ministry of Defense, Ioan Aurel Lascu, head of the Weapons Department, said that the Ministry has been considering the purchase of several multipurpose planes to be used for ten years, until Romania"s accession into the F-35 program (sometime in 2018). Ioan Lascu also said, quoted by NewsIn, that one of the programs for 2009 for equipping the army without additional costs, include the purchase of multipurpose jets for the Air Forces, the modernization of frigates and improving the security of military warehouses. On the issue of multipurpose jets, the Council of Defense has not yet reached a decision, as it is weighing several options, including buying jets currently in use.

The Ministry of Defense officials says that the paperwork for the purchase of the multipurpose jets has been reviewed by the Supreme Council for Defense and has been submitted to the Government. Ioan Lascu also said that the Air Force is now unfolding a program for the modernization of four C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, as part of a government level agreement with the United States.

A real mess! And the purchase of multipurpose jets is just part of the plan to outfit the army. The amounts needed - which are in the hundreds of millions of Euros - are enough to make one"s head spin. But other numbers will show the sad and simple truth: by means of Government Decree 34/2009, the budget of the Ministry of Defense for 2009 was cut by 696.42 million lei. Meaning the initially approved budget of 7.651 billion lei, the equivalent of 1.33% of the GDP, dropped to 6.955 billion lei, or just 1.31% of the GDP. In other words, the Army does not have a penny to its name. It can barely afford to pay the wages, let alone for multipurpose jets or other advanced fighting techniques.

The Government and the Supreme Council of Defense can"t even be bothered to take into consideration borrowing money to at least launch the first tenders for outfitting the army next year. At the end of November we will have the presidential elections. Meaning that wages, pensions welfare aid and unemployment fund expenditures will take precedence over anything else. Investments are again neglected, and equipping the Army has been postponed again, until the cows come home....