Acting Defence Minister Radu Miruta on Saturday said that in the Defence Ministry (MApN) there is also 'a vein of people who, after having obtained some benefits, even if the times no longer correspond to their activity, do not want to give up and oppose any method of modernisation, of refreshing the Romanian armed forces.'

He made this statement when asked in an interview broadcast on Saturday by the Digi 24 private broadcaster if there is a national communist vein in the defence system.

'And it is a strong fight, because there are people with decision-making power in the Romanian Army. It is the minister's challenge to impose new measures that, in fact, in order to be imposed, must also have the acceptance of these people. People say: 'You're a minister'. It's true, but they also have a signature for something in their job description. I can only reorganise, move those people there, and that is done with the approval of some of their friends who oppose it. It is a fight that I see in the MApN for this and I believe that the human resources policy must be anchored in the realities of 2026 in the area of technology, communication,' said Miruta.

He also referred to technicians.

'There are about 3,000 technical people in MApN. I worked in a technology company where, if I managed 100 people, they could be responsible for activities on two continents. About 3,000 technical people, of course, claim that they are not paid properly, which is true. But there are many more things that can be done, and I have some limits that I have set for myself regarding that. Imagine that in every military unit there is an IP connection, but a series of services, which can be functional over this communication environment, have not even thought of using and implementing them, while paying sums of money for old technologies to achieve the same thing. It is not a challenge for many responsible people to get out of their own comfort zone where they are quite well protected, connected,' Mirunt said.

The government official also mentioned that his first concern when he took over the leadership position of the ministry in December 2025, was when he found that there is no plan to acquire the technology necessary to combat the drones used by Russia in the war against Ukraine and that reach the territory of Romania.

'We saw once a week on the operative phone that there are unauthorised entries into the airspace, and in Romania, the political decision making in the last two, three years, has never been to buy something to fight against drones,' said Miruta. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Luisiana Bigea; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)