Poland and Romania join the race to produce military drones

With a war on their borders, Poland and Romania have set out to revitalize their arms industries. Russia’s offensive in Ukraine has upended plans across the European Union — which has launched an €800 billion rearmament process — and has especially affected these two Eastern European countries, each of which shares hundreds of miles of border with the invaded state. Since the conflict began a little over four years ago, Warsaw and Bucharest have become central hubs for supplying weapons and delivering humanitarian aid to support Kyiv in its struggle to defend its sovereignty.

Now both capitals have taken a further step: they want to position themselves as Europe’s leading drone suppliers by taking advantage of the EU defense program SAFE (Security Assistance for Europe), launched by Brussels. SAFE is a financial instrument intended to provide up to €150 billion in loans to back countries that want to invest in defense industrial production.

At the end of March, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz inaugurated the Center for Autonomous Systems (OSA, in Polish) as part of a project to speed up research and production of unmanned aircraft. Specifically, the PLargonia model is being billed as the “Polish Shahed,” an allusion to the kamikaze drones originally produced in Iran and now being mass-produced by Russia under the name Geran for use against Ukraine. “The immediate priority is to finish the PLargonia design — a military drone that will soon be operational and in production,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said at the time. To accelerate manufacturing, the center, located on the outskirts of Warsaw, is coordinated by the army and the Polish Armaments Group PGZ — a state consortium of defense companies — as well as several civilian research institutes. The aircraft is lighter than the Shahed, with a range of up to 900 kilometers (560 miles) and a maximum warhead payload of 20 kilograms compared with the Iranian model’s 2,400 kilometers (1,490 miles) and 90 kilograms, according to the manufacturer.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European government wants to finance drone production with EU funds. However, it has hit a roadblock: Euroskeptic President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the plan. “The president’s decision changes nothing between the Polish government and the European Commission,” said Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka, the government official in charge of SAFE. “The only thing that has changed is that we need to find another way to put this money into our system.” Specifically, officials are working on a plan to channel the money into a military fund that would not require the head of state’s approval.

Sobkowiak-Czarnecka also said the EU funds would be used to build an anti-drone system with an investment of about €3.5 billion to defend against any threat. Nawrocki argues the loan would be too expensive, even though the interest rate would be below the rate the country pays on sovereign debt. Tusk, for his part, acknowledged that the unprecedented incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace last year prompted the idea of boosting production.

The crash of several drones on Romanian territory has also prompted Bucharest to reconsider its arms policy and enter the race to produce these systems, which would ultimately help defend its airspace from incursions by Russian unmanned aircraft. In mid-March, the presidents of Ukraine and Romania, Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Nicușor Dan, signed an agreement to co‑manufacture drones on Romanian soil, a €200 million project the government intends to fund through the SAFE mechanism.

The agreement states that most of the defense systems and capabilities produced in Romania will primarily meet the needs of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Forces. To that end, the Ukrainian side will allow the exchange of technologies, mutually protected intellectual property, and the data required to establish these production facilities in Romania, in accordance with export control laws. The Romanian state, in turn, will facilitate and promote the creation of Ukrainian security and defense companies in Romania through joint ventures.

“The advantage of this cooperation lies in the fact that these drones were tested during the war in Ukraine and have a good performance level, so it helps Romania skip certain testing phases for these systems,” said Aurel Cazacu, former director of the national company Romarm, the country’s main producer of weapons, ammunition, and military equipment. The expert also stressed that drone technology is evolving rapidly. “When a drone is manufactured, it is refined a month later and, another month on, elements are added that will improve its capabilities; it is an industry in constant evolution,” Cazacu said.

More models

The first drones to be manufactured in Romania will be called Cuda and Sirin, but production will soon expand to six models. One will be a kamikaze type, capable of carrying explosives and striking targets with precision. “We already have several prototypes that we will test up to the end of May to begin production this summer,” Bogdan Ivan, the economy minister, said a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, aeronautics firm Romaero expects to produce about 1,500 drones per month by the end of this year in collaboration with a company specializing in AI‑based aircraft. The state company has been insolvent for two years, and its recovery depends largely on new investment and this project.

Economically, drone manufacturing will invigorate the economy and create thousands of jobs, spawning a network of component suppliers. “Drones are not just assemblies, but also aerodynamics, engines, propulsion systems, communications systems, and electro‑optical sensors,” Cazacu emphasized. In addition, communications with the drone are one of the essential components. “You build it in vain if you cannot maintain contact with it by satellite or through electronic systems,” the expert concluded.

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