Drone testing in Romania: army opens training areas to private companies

The General Staff of the Romanian Land Forces is inviting commercial suppliers to practical drone testing in September and October. According to social media posts, private companies will soon be able to test military equipment, especially drones and counter-UAS systems, on the army's training areas.

The Romanian Ministry of Defence outlines the technologies in demand as follows:

The test activities focus on technological solutions with military applications in areas such as: unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), first-person-view (FPV) drones, early warning systems, software solutions for analysing sensor data, electronic warfare systems and kinetic counter-drone measures— Romanian Ministry of Defence

Drone testing at three sites

The first tests of this kind kick off on 5 and 6 September at the Getica Joint Training Center in Cincu. Two more test windows follow at the end of October: on the 21st and 22nd at the Jigodin range in Miercurea Ciuc, and on the 27th and 28th at the Dragoslavele range in Argeș. If there is demand and interest, testing can also take place at other locations.

The test phases offer a unique opportunity to trial the technological solutions in economic operators' portfolios in a complex operational setting reflecting real combat conditions, including electromagnetically contested environments.— Statement by the Romanian Ministry of Defence

The ministry stressed that the private sector and the military must cooperate in this way, following the US example. The Pentagon recently announced it would let private defence companies test their equipment on US military ranges for 30 days. This is meant to make it easier to verify certain capabilities and replenish the equipment stocks of the US Army.