The Romanian Defense Staff will continue to speed up the process of strengthening the operational capacity of the army to ensure that missions are carried out in accordance with the country’s internal missions and its NATO partners, Chief of Defense Staff Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu said on Feb.19.

Arquus Dagger (still presented as Panhard PVP) of the Romanian army displayed at BSDA 2018 defense exhibition (Picture source: Army Recognition)

Daniel Petrescu chaired on Wednesday the self-assessment meeting of the Defence Staff's 2019 activity, context in which he presented to Defence Minister Nicolae Ciuca the way last year's general and specific objectives have been achieved, as they had a multidisciplinary character and their fulfillment entailed a collaborative effort at the level of the entire structure of SMAp.

According to Defence Minister Nicolae Ciuca’s administration, in 2019, the Romanian Army participated in 131 multinational exercises (47 on the national territory and 84 abroad), out of which 78 NATO and partnership exercises, with an approximate number of 17,500 military and over 4,000 technical means and equipment.

NATO’s Saber Guardian 19 exercise represented the largest multinational exercise on Romanian territory in 2019, bringing together approximately 13,400 military personnel and 3,550 technical means.

As of 2017, the Romanian armed forces numbered 69,300 active personnel and 50,000 reserves. The Land Forces have a reported strength of 36,000, the Air Force 10,300, the Naval Forces 6,500, and Joint Forces 16,500. Total defense spending then accounted for 2% of total national GDP, which represented approximately 4.04 billion US dollars. The Land Forces have overhauled their equipment in recent years, and are now a modern army with multiple NATO capabilities. They are participating in a peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, together with other NATO countries.