RSS
l Maintainance for the Terrestrial Forces technique– 280 million lei annually
Maintainance for the technique of the Terrestrial Forces endowment costs approximately 280 million lei annually, money which the specialist structures in the ministry of defence does not have completely, reason for which some of the armoured vehicles are put to rest even for short periods of time, until the necessary sums could be found for their repair, officials of Romanian Terrestrial Forces stated for Agerpres.
“The maintainance of the whole technique which comes in the endowment of the Terrestrial Forces for one year is approximately 280 million lei. We have never had that kind of money in the budget and that is why some of them are well kept, we take care of them and we manage to maintain them functioning. We have some others which are put to rest, but the periods are very small. We cannot afford to keep them unused as there is a level of operation and we have to be able to have them all functioning when necessary” brigade general Mihai Ciungu, the head of Instruction and Doctrine in the General Staff of the Terrestrial Forces said.
According to him, the budget of the Terrestrial Forces for 2013 is over two billion lei.
“The budget of the Terrestrial Forces is approximately 2,227,759 thousand lei. As regards maintainance, priority have the technical means destined to the structures whichy are at the disposal of NATO, whose which are nominalised to undertake missions in the operation theatres, follow the ones for regional initiatives and participations to European fighting groups” Mihai Ciungu said.
In the endowment of the Terrestrial Forces there are over 1,600 armored vehicles of different types and generations. Some of the armoured vehicles in the Terrestrial Forces endowment are brought to the parade dedicated to the National Day every year, to be admired. Among them, are the Pirahna ones, the fighting vehicles type HMMWV and the URO VAMTAC.
Romania is to receive the last part of seven Pirahna conveyors at the beginning of next year, when the money is given to the delivery contract by the Swiss company Mowag, the armoured vehicles getting to Bataillon 26 Craiova, where the other 24 conveyors are.
“At present, the 24 Pirahna conveyors are in Craiova, the other seven will be delivered at the beginning of 2014 and thus Bataillion 26 will be endowed with Pirahna conveyors. It is the technique they do everyday and there they will stay. We have another part to pay and to receive” Mihai Ciungu said.
In 2007, eight conveyors got to the operation theatre in Afganistan but not for long. A year later, they were brought back to the country because Romania needed a system of maintainance separate for the armoured vehicles in Afganistan, and the producers advised the representatives of the Army to withdraw as long as they are under guarantee.
“The contract signed with Mowag included the distribution to Romania of a number of 31 armoured conveyors for the troops divided into groups of ten and other three sets of seven conveyors. Up to now, there were delivered 24 conveyors, all of them for Bataillon 26 Craiova and I can say more because I was the commander of the Bataillon when the first arrived. It is good technique. As any new technique, when they arrived we had a testing plan for six months whose purpose was to verify the requirements included in the contract so that we can see if on land, the technique could meet all the requirements. After this operational testing, the decision was taken to test them in Afganistan. Eight conveyors were introduced in 2007, if I am not wrong, and they were withdrawn in 2008. They were withdrawn as they were not bought for Afganistan but for the country and that is why we needed a maintainance system only for eight conveyors. At the same time, they were under guarantee and the producer said that it would be better to bring them back” General Ciungu said.
The officials of Terrestiral Forces say that along the years Pirahna conveyors needed repairs.
“There are problems after five years of functioning which is normal. Some of them are still under guarantee, depending on the set. Those which were delivered first are no longer under guarantee. It is true there were some problems, but as they were under guarantee, the company and the operator repaired them. We discovered some irregularities during the operational testing. All were solved by the company. In Afganistan we had no problems to take them out of work” brigade general Mihai Ciungu said.