Romania has placed an additional order for Raytheon made Patriot air and missile defense systems (Raytheon)
BELFAST — RTX’s Raytheon has received a $946 million contract from Romania for the supply of additional Patriot air and missile defense systems, marking a third such order by the European nation.
The acquisition is designed to replace Patriot equipment supplied to Ukraine and falls under a wider Western coalition military aid effort led by Germany, the Immediate Action on Air Defense (IAAD) project, to urgently co-fund and transfer a variety of modern air defense systems to Kyiv.
In an announcement last week RTX noted that the new contract “includes fire units consisting of radars, control stations and missiles.”
Similarly, Romania’s Minister of National Defence Angel Tilvar welcomed the order on X, sharing that “The radars, control stations and missiles that will equip the next 3 Patriot systems for Romania, contracted in 2023, will strengthen Romania’s strategic air defense capabilities.”
Pete Bata, senior vice president of Global Patriot at Raytheon, said in the announcement that “Romania’s continued investment in Patriot is a testament to the nation’s dedication to ensuring collective security, deterrence, and stability across Europe.”
Norway and Sweden are partly funding the new procurement for Bucharest with Oslo contributing approximately $127 million and Stockholm offering around $27 million, according to figures from the Romanian and Swedish governments.
Romania said last year that it was acquiring 200 Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) Guidance Enhanced Missiles-Tactical (GEM-T) surface-to-air missiles, valued at €1.09 billion ($1.13 billion), as part of a wider NATO joint procurement.
Breaking Defense reported at the time that the $5.5 billion alliance procurement, which also includes Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, could lead to a combined total of 1,000 GEM-T units being procured.
The missile interceptor has been designed to destroy tactical ballistic missiles and is a “primary effector” for Patriot, according to RTX.
Patriot has been credited with shooting down Russian Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles during the war in Ukraine, but delivery delays have been a point of tension in recent months.
“Sometimes these gaps are excessively long. You cannot do military planning. You cannot calculate what you [should be able to] count on, on the battlefield,” said Dmytro Kuleba, former Ukrainian minister for foreign affairs, last year.
Alongside Patriot, Ukraine also operates Soviet-era S-300 surface to air missile systems against Russia, while the US and Norway have provided Kyiv with National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS). Additionally, Germany has also supplied IRIS-T SLM (Surface Launched Medium Range) missiles.
