Romania picks Turkish armored vehicles in $940 million deal – MASHAHER

WARSAW, Poland — Romania has selected the Turkish Cobra II four-wheel-drive armored vehicle for the country’s land forces, ordering a total of 1,059 units.

Under the plan, the first 278 vehicles will be made in Turkey by manufacturer Otokar, and the remainder at a plant operated in Romania by local companies.

The planned sale is estimated to be worth around RON 4.263 billion ($940 million), Otokar said in a statement.

Romania’s Ministry of National Defence has tasked state-run defense company Romtehnica with carrying out the procurement.

The latest development comes as Bucharest is advancing a number of major procurements for the nation’s land forces. These include the planned acquisitions of new tracked infantry fighting vehicles, tanks and wheeled self-propelled howitzers. Last June, Romania chose the K9 Thunder 155 mm tracked self-propelled howitzer for the country’s military, purchasing 54 howitzers from South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace.

Alexandru Georgescu, a Bucharest-based security and defense analyst, told Defense News that, following long-standing public criticism, the Romanian ministry attaches great importance to foreign suppliers’ offers of cooperation with local defense plants.

Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine is encouraging Bucharest to strengthen “the undersized and overall neglected Romanian defense industry,” Georgescu said.

The Cobra II has a gross weight of up to 14.5 tons (31,967 lbs) and is powered by a turbo-charged diesel engine fitted with a 360 hp capacity. The vehicle can carry a total of 11 persons, including a driver and a commander, according to data from the Turkish manufacturer.