Romania Purchases Israeli Air Defense Systems, Rejecting Offers from MBDA and Diehl

Israeli company Rafael has won a tender to supply the Romanian army with short-range and close-range air defense systems.

Defense Romania reported on this.

Romanian Defense Minister Ion Moșteanu officially announced during his first public speech after taking office that the Israeli company Rafael had been selected as the winner of the tender for the supply of air defense systems.

According to him, although the winner has already been determined, the process is not yet complete, and negotiations are ongoing. The contract may be signed this fall.

According to information from Defense Romania, only Rafael of Israel remained in the competition with its SPYDER systems and Derby missiles (SHORAD/VSHORAD) in short- and medium-range versions, after European companies MBDA and Diehl were excluded from the tender.

“I hope we won’t run into any problems along the way. These are defense missile batteries that we don’t have, and we need them,” Ionut Mosteanu added.

In total, the Romanian Integrated SHORAD-VSHORAD Weapon System program plans to purchase 16 short-range and close-range systems for the Romanian Air Force and 9 short-range and 16 close-range systems for the Romanian Army. The total cost of the program is estimated at €4.2 billion.

Israeli SPYDER air defense systems are classified as medium- and short-range air defense systems, depending on the missiles used, and not as short-range and close-range systems, as stated in the Romanian military’s plans.

Spyder

Spyder (Surface-to-Air PYton and DERby) from Rafael is a mobile, all-weather, short- and medium-range system designed to destroy aircraft, cruise missiles, and UAVs.

The system is based on the Python 5 guided missile with an infrared seeker or the Derby family of air-to-air missiles with an active radar seeker.

Thanks to the use of active GOS in missiles, the system is capable of engaging multiple targets simultaneously using fire-and-forget missiles.

Due to the I-Derby-ER missiles, the interception range of the systems will be increased to 80 kilometers, compared to the range of the I-Derby (up to 50 km) and Python 5 (up to 20 km) missiles. In January 2023, Rafael announced that they had upgraded Spyder to enable the interception of tactical ballistic missiles.