Romania wants to buy the drone made famous in Ukraine

Romania plans to buy Turkish Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aircraft worth 300 million euros, according to the Defense Ministry. The drone became world famous after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

The Ministry has asked Parliament for permission to purchase 18 TB2 units

Romania, a NATO member country that shares a 650-kilometre border with Ukraine, plans to increase defence spending from the current 2% to 2.5% next year, President Klaus Iohannis has announced. Earlier this year, parliament gave the go-ahead for the purchase of 32 second-hand F-16 jets from Norway.

Our country’s biggest military purchase so far is a $4 billion contract for Patriot surface-to-air missiles, produced by the US company Raytheon.

Bayraktar TB2, a “cheap and good” drone

The impact of the TB2 drones was so great in the first weeks of the war that the head of the Ukrainian Air Force, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, called them “life-giving”.

Unmanned aircraft are equipped with powerful cameras and can be used for surveillance missions, directing artillery fire or ground attacks.

Also read: Ukraine wins the war on social media. Viral song dedicated to Bayraktar drone (VIDEO)

The drone can stay in the air for up to 24 hours at a maximum altitude of 7,600 meters. The drone is usually controlled by a human pilot on the ground in a command centre, but it also has the ability to perform autonomous missions using artificial intelligence.

The Bayraktar TB2 is 6.5 metres long, has a wingspan of 12 metres and can carry equipment or weaponry weighing up to 150 kg.

TB2 has four weapon attachment points. Anti-tank missiles, smart bombs or air-to-ground missiles can be used.

Compared to a multirole aircraft, the cost of the drone is quite low. The Bayraktar TB2 costs about $5 million apiece. By comparison, an American-made General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drone costs $32 million, and prices for the radar-invisible F-35A start at $78 million apiece.