Turkish Otokar to Pay Fine for Missing Armored Vehicle Delivery Deadlines to Romania

Turkish Otokar will pay a fine of about €40 million for missing COBRA II armored vehicle delivery deadlines and delays in setting up production at the Romtehnica plant in Romania.

This was reported by Dunya.

According to the publication, Otokar agreed to pay total compensation of about 2 billion Turkish lira (about €40 million) as part of the COBRA II armored vehicle supply project, which is being implemented jointly with Romtehnica, a company owned by the Romanian Ministry of Defense.

Romtehnica demanded that Otokar pay compensation in the amount of 191,847,899.70 Romanian lei (€37.7 million) because the intermediate stages of preparation for local production in Romania, as provided for in the contract, were not completed on time.

In addition, Romtehnica has filed an additional claim for 7,295,974.66 Romanian lei (€1.4 million) due to the delay in the delivery of the first batch of 194 vehicles manufactured at Otokar’s plants.

It is expected that these amounts will be settled by offsetting them against payments that Romtehnica was to make under the contract with Otokar.

COBRA II for Romania

Turkish armored vehicle manufacturer Otokar signed a contract to supply 1,059 COBRA II 4×4 armored vehicles to the Romanian Armed Forces at the end of 2024.

The contract is estimated to be worth approximately €857 million. Under the contract, the first 278 armored vehicles will be manufactured in Turkey, and the rest in Romania.

As of the end of July 2025, deliveries were on schedule. 40 COBRA II armored vehicles manufactured by Otokar have already been delivered to Romania.

In April 2025, the companies signed an agreement to establish a joint venture in Romania. In addition to manufacturing armored vehicles, the new venture will also engage in engineering, marketing, and after-sales service in Romania.

According to the signed agreement, each of the parties — Otokar Land Systems SRL and Automecanica S.A. — will own 50% of the joint venture’s shares.

According to the plan, the company will begin supplying armored vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2025 and will do so in batches over a period of five years.