The Romanian army insists on buying equipment outdated by contemporary warfare

Half a year ago, I wrote about the inadequacy of the endowment of the Romanian army to the realities of contemporary wars. Strategists who decide which weapons to buy Romania no longer opened a specialized book in college, and the ones they were reading then were probably from the time of Clausewitz. It is not only the Romanian army in this deplorable situation. If there are thinking strategists in the military of the US, Russia, France, or any other major military in the world, they most likely do not get to make decisions. The military strategies of most countries with theoretically strong armies are still based on powerful, large and generally heavy weapons. In any case, extremely expensive. Weapons that, faced with the reality of contemporaneity, prove to be almost useless.

Last week, for example, Ukrainian officials denied that Ukraine’s military had withdrawn M1A1 Abrams tanks from the front. But to deny this information it was necessary first for it to appear. And it did, from a very reliable source: the Associated Press. The US news agency, one of the oldest and most respected in the world, cited two US military sources for this information, after which confirmation came from Admiral Christopher Grady, the deputy chief of the US Army General Staff. “For now, the tanks have been moved from the front line, and the US will work with the Ukrainians to reset the tactics,” Admiral Grady told The Associated Press. But why would the Ukrainians and the US withdraw Abrams tanks from the front line? Well, because they are completely defenseless against Russian drone attacks.

Abrams M1A1 tanks arrived in Ukraine last fall. 31 pieces. In just two months, the Russians managed to destroy five Abrams tanks, thanks to the US military. With a casualty rate of 16% in just two months, the war in Ukraine is the most disastrous for American tanks. For example, in the first Persian Gulf War, during the operation “Desert Storm”, the Americans lost only nine Abrams tanks, of which only two were destroyed by the enemy, the rest were destroyed by the US military itself in order not to fall into the hands of the Iraqi army.

Well, Romania does not want to understand anything, further, from what is happening around it. Okay, Romania doesn’t even want to understand what’s happening in its own country, but that’s something else. We are very close to acquiring 54 Abrams M1A1 tanks, plus ten support vehicles for them, also built on Abrams chassis. The Romanian Parliament approved this purchase, with a total price declared by MApN of one billion dollars. The approval came from the US Government, but along the way a distortion of a clearance happened, and the price for the 64 vehicles ended up being 2.5 times higher, that is, 54 tanks plus support vehicles will cost us 2 .5 billion dollars. It is a rarity in the world of government procurement that the seller increases the price by 2.5 times the price approved by the buyer.

But now, what are we going to do with the 54 Abrams, when we get them, in the event of an attack? Do we still take them out of the garages or keep them in the shelter from the very beginning, so that the enemy doesn’t scratch them?

Until one time, we buy much too expensive some equipment that has already finished its life cycle. Paying $2.5 billion for some trinkets we’ll only use once a year, at the December 1st parade, is an extravagance we really shouldn’t be able to afford.