National defense company ROMARM will strengthen its physical and cybersecurity measures in response to threats flagged in official notifications from Romanian state institutions, while the company's management hopes the new government will support investment and the modernisation of the defence industry.

'We are part of Romania's critical infrastructure. It is only natural that we cooperate with all the country's security institutions. We regularly receive official briefings. ROMARM has its own security unit dealing with these matters because we manufacture weapons, which are of strategic importance to Romania. We constantly receive information about various threats and cooperate with the relevant authorities,' ROMARM Director General Razvan-Marian Pircalabescu told AGERPRES this week.

According to him, the company will take additional precautions and reinforce its existing security unit, which will be upgraded to a department as part of an upcoming restructuring, with round-the-clock monitoring.

'We are taking precautions and strengthening security and protection measures. These are not just physical measures. We could face something similar to what happened at the Cadastre and Real Estate Advertising Agency, for example, when its website went down. We have also taken cybersecurity precautions. I intend to turn our security unit into a department when we restructure ROMARM, which will happen very soon, and introduce 24/7 monitoring. We are taking the strongest possible precautions, as any company should,' Pircalabescu explained.

The ROMARM chief said he wanted the company's 15 subsidiaries to operate as a single entity, eliminating overlapping administrative structures and reducing costs. The plan involves both financial restructuring and reindustrialisation, including the purchase of modern equipment to replace outdated production lines.

'What I want is a single company. We have reached a point where we can no longer afford to waste money on 15 boards of directors, 15 chief financial officers, 15 directors general and 15 board secretaries, not to mention duplicated administrative and support services. We need financial restructuring and the reindustrialisation of ROMARM. We must purchase high-performance equipment to replace those old production lines. The 15 subsidiaries should become branches without separate legal personality, so that management positions are no longer duplicated,' he added.

According to Pîrcalabescu, the reorganisation proposals were first submitted last year, and management intends to present them again to the Economy minister. The plan would subsequently be forwarded to the Supreme Council of National Defence (CSAT) for review and possible amendments.

'We operate under the coordination of the Ministry of Economy. We submitted these proposals last year, when I believe Mr Miruta was minister, followed by Mr Darau. Unfortunately, they made a mockery of the process. We will submit them to Minister Zamfir, with whom I have already spoken. He fully agreed that ROMARM must become competitive and undergo restructuring. He will then forward the proposals to CSAT. I am sure the Council will suggest improvements, but we will become more efficient, and this will be the largest restructuring of a company in Romania,' the ROMARM director general said.

Referring to difficulties in recent years, Pircalabescu argued that the defence industry had been neglected, particularly because certain investment projects were not approved in 2025.

'For example, in 2025, approximately one billion lei was allocated for investment across the defence industry, including ROMARM and facilities such as Mija, Carfil and the Bucharest Mechanical Plant. Several of our subsidiaries were involved. Although the government had allocated the money and the funds were available, towards the end of 2025, during the terms of both Miruta and Darau, the ministry failed to approve the projects under the investment plan through the Technical and Economic Council. As a result, we effectively lost 200 million lei, or 40 million euros. That is an enormous amount.

'And this happened while everyone was telling us to become competitive and acquire new products and equipment. The government makes an effort to allocate money to the industry, only for the responsible ministry to withhold approval at the last moment. This is unacceptable. It amounts to clear sabotage of the defence industry. On top of that, there were administrative blockages. We had 35 general meetings of shareholders that were not convened over the past two years. (...) They would not approve anything,' he said.

Pircalabescu expressed confidence in the current government and the economy minister, saying he expected their support for developing the defence industry and making the investments needed to modernise production facilities.

'The defence industry will move forward, and we will make investments. We are currently selling what we already have on our production lines and signing new contracts, but we need to establish production lines for new NATO-calibre products, which are in demand across the Alliance and needed by the Romanian Armed Forces. We must manufacture them here so that, in the event of a conflict, we are 100% prepared across the entire production chain,' the ROMARM director general said. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Cristian Anghelache; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)