Report from behind the scenes: Romania requests a permanent U.S. troop presence, Ukrainian drone project stuck in Bucharest's bureaucracy

Romania has officially asked the United States to significantly and permanently increase its military presence at the Mihail Kogălniceanu air base near Constanța and other key locations. G4Media, citing unnamed sources at the defense ministry, reported on November 6 in detail on what Ștefan Radu Oprea, the Social Democrat defense minister of the Niculescu government, found when he took over the ministry in late October.

According to the outlet, the Romanian proposal was received by Elbridge Colby, the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, who is preparing a report for Congress on the repositioning of American forces in Europe, though the final decision rests with the Trump administration. Bucharest presented the infrastructure of its national training centers and did not simply ask for more troops, but for forces with genuine combat capability. The Romanian side also outlined scenarios similar to the Polish model, with the host country covering maintenance costs, and would most like to see a permanent American presence established at Kogălniceanu, along with expanded facilities at other sites. Investments are also planned at the base to house American soldiers and their families. "Colby had one opinion when he arrived and left with another," one source told the outlet.

Bucharest is also willing to spend serious money to expand the American presence. According to information reported by Euronews România on November 5, Romanian authorities may set aside around $4.5 billion for investments aimed at encouraging a greater American military presence, of which $2.5 billion would go toward developing the Kogălniceanu base. Outgoing Defense Minister Radu Miruță did not confirm these figures, but did confirm that Romania sent Washington a classified document on what resources it could contribute to defending NATO's eastern flank. According to him, the document covers military infrastructure investments, procurements financed through the EU's SAFE loan program, as well as the housing of allied troops and firing ranges. Miruță said that at the end of 2025 the United States partially withdrew its forces from Romania, but in 2026 another 400–500 American troops arrived, some temporarily and some for longer stays. He did not confirm whether the total American presence is now close to 1,500 personnel.

Several programs at the ministry, however, have stalled. The most important is an industrial project worth about €200 million, to be run as a joint venture, under which drones would be manufactured in Romania together with Ukraine. Talks were held with Ukraine's prime minister and defense minister, as well as with the state-owned defense company Romarm, but the project has become stuck in Bucharest's bureaucracy, because the state-owned defense procurement company Romtehnica reportedly lacks the operational capacity to manage the arrangement. It is now being examined whether the project should be handed over to the Ministry of Economy or procured through the Army's General Directorate for Armaments (DGA), which sources consider the best solution. Meanwhile, an investment by an American arms manufacturer in Romania is also at an advanced stage. Sig Sauer would set up a plant producing weapons, ammunition and equipment adapted to the 6.8mm caliber adopted by allies as a new standard. According to Profit.ro, a Romanian subsidiary of the company, together with the Cugir arms factory and the Sadu machinery plant forming a consortium, already signed a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Economy in May on an €816.57 million infantry weapons contract financed through SAFE. This covers 378,589 weapons and more than 209 million rounds of ammunition, with more than 65 percent of production to take place in Romania, but the framework contract was not signed by the May 30 deadline.

The Black Sea remains the greatest security risk, where Russian attacks on commercial vessels pose the most serious threats. One ship was warned an hour before an attack with the help of American reconnaissance drones, but Romanian forces were unable to intercept the attacking drone because of bad weather. One source also admitted that "the MEROPS system failed to shoot down the drones." MEROPS is an American-developed, artificial intelligence-based anti-drone system deployed on NATO's eastern flank. Romania has so far neutralized six drones, five within its own airspace and one outside it. The air force is also struggling: according to sources, the aircraft were delivered without the necessary software packages, so talks are underway with the Pentagon and Honeywell, while the simulators are being adapted for the transition to F-35s. Extraction at the Neptun Deep offshore gas field is set to begin in 2027; there is no permanent military observation post at the site, and security is ensured in cooperation with OMV and with fighter jets — an F-16 recently opened fire on a drone heading toward the gas field's area. Next week, the ministry is negotiating with Thales to have the radars intended for Galați and the port of Constanța delivered earlier. The legislative packages on critical infrastructure, preparing the population for war, and volunteer reservists are in the final interagency consultation stage before going to parliament, while a military satellite communications project previously halted for budgetary reasons could receive funding in next year's budget. Defense spending is planned to reach 2.54 percent of GDP by 2027, with actual execution expected at 2.44 percent.

At his parliamentary hearing on October 19, Oprea said that the defense ministry does not need to undergo major changes with every change of government, because there is a long-term strategy and action plan, and he also warned that the ministry must play its role in protecting the Neptun Deep gas field within the legal framework, since Romania needs to extract about eight billion cubic meters of gas in 2027. The hearing made no mention of American troops, the drone project or the SAFE program — yet these are precisely what will determine how secure Romania will be in the coming years.

Ugar