Romania Military - 2024

Military and security forces

Romanian Armed Forces (Forțele Armate Române or Armata Română): Land Forces, Naval Forces, Air Force

Ministry of Internal Affairs: General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police, the Romanian Gendarmerie (Jandarmeria Română), the Romanian Border Police, the General Directorate for Internal Protection, and the Directorate General for Anticorruption (2024)

Military expenditures

1.6% of GDP (2023 est.)
1.7% of GDP (2022)
1.9% of GDP (2021)
2% of GDP (2020)
1.8% of GDP (2019)

Military and security service personnel strengths

approximately 75,000 active-duty military personnel (58,000 Land Forces; 7,000 Naval Forces; 10,000 Air Force) (2023)

Military equipment inventories and acquisitions

the military's inventory includes a considerable amount of Soviet-era and older domestically produced weapons systems, although in recent years it has launched an effort to acquire more Western-origin equipment from European countries and the US, including aircraft and armored vehicles (2023)

Military service age and obligation

18 years of age for voluntary service for men and women; all military inductees contract for an initial 5-year term of service, with subsequent successive 3-year terms until age 36; conscription ended in 2006 (2023)

Military deployments

up to 120 Poland (NATO) (2023)

Military - note

the Romanian Armed Forces are responsible for territorial defense, fulfilling Romania’s commitments to European security, and contributing to multinational peacekeeping operations; the military has a variety of concerns, including cyber attacks and terrorism, but its primary focus is Russian aggression against neighboring Ukraine and Russia's activities in the Black Sea and Romania’s other eastern neighbor, Moldova

Romania joined NATO in 2004, and the Alliance forms a key pillar of the country’s defense policy; it hosts a NATO multinational divisional headquarters (Multinational Division Southeast) and a French-led ground force battlegroup as part of NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence initiative in the southeastern part of the Alliance, which came about in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine; NATO allies have also sent detachments of fighters to augment the Romanian Air Force since 2014 because of aggressive Russian activity in the Black Sea region; the Romanian military trains regularly with NATO and its member states and participates in NATO- and EU-led multinational missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Poland

the military is an all-volunteer force equipped largely with Soviet-era or other aging weapons systems, although since joining NATO it has embarked on an effort to acquire more modern, NATO-compatible weapons systems, such as armored vehicles, combat aircraft, and naval vessels; the main combat formations of the Land Forces are two combined arms infantry divisions, each comprised of three or four mechanized and mountain infantry brigades, plus artillery, reconnaissance, and other combat support forces; the Army also has a tactical missile brigade; the military’s special operations forces were consolidated into a special operations command in 2018

the Romanian Navy operates on the Black Sea and the Danube River; the Black Sea fleet command has a small force of frigates and corvettes organized into flotillas and divisions, as well as divisions of mine warfare vessels, naval missiles, and coastal defense; the Danube River flotilla operates gunboats and has a marine infantry regiment 

the Air Force had approximately 400 Soviet-made combat aircraft when Romania was a member of the Warsaw Pact, but by the 2020s the number was down to a few dozen that were being replaced by secondhand US-origin F-16 fighter aircraft acquired from NATO partners; in 2023, Romania retired the last of its Soviet-era fighters and signed a contract to acquire about 30 additional F-16s from Norway (2023)