Northrop Grumman announced this week it has signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned Romanian defense company Romarm to work together on a ground-based radar system for the Romanian air force. According to a Northrop Grumman statement, “The radar will deliver advanced capabilities and performance against today’s most sophisticated threats while also providing interoperability with command-and-control systems employed by NATO countries, including the United States.”
Greg Teitelbaum, Northrop Grumman VP for land and maritime sensors, said, “Our solutions provide long range 360-degree surveillance and fire control for air and missile defense, made possible with secure and interoperable software.”
Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) is viewed as pivotal to NATO’s layered air defense network. The company has signed contracts with Poland and the U.S. for a total of $1.4 billion in sales for the IBCS. If this week’s MoU comes to fruition, Romania would be integrated with U.S. and Poland’s air defense infrastructure for cooperative detection and engagement. In addition, a deal with Romania would reinforce U.S. support for Eastern Europe and represent a setback to potential Russian aggression.
Well, that sounds just great; and on the downside?
And still we functionally abandon our ally Ukraine. Were I an eastern European, I’m not sure having my defensive systems “integrated with the US” would provide me much comfort.