The strategic concepts are the main guidelines for the use of the Armed
Forces in the implementation of our Military Strategy. They also define
the way our Armed Forces will be organized, equipped and trained. These
concepts are: credible defensive capability, restructuring and modernization,
enhanced operational partnership and gradual integration. Credible defensive
capability.
The Romanian Armed Forces must maintain a permanent capability to effectively
and adequately respond to risks generated by the security environment.
A gradual and flexible response, including a combination
of simultaneous or sequential actions, using surveillance and early warning
forces, as well as crisis operations forces, main and reserve forces,
provides an adequate response to threats.
It includes four stages:
Early Warning: specialized peacetime forces, deployed in the neighborhood
of the border areas and in the depth of the national territory, provide
surveillance and early warning capability.
Their purpose is to participate in preventing strategic surprise, to discover
and monitor any indication related to the emergence and development of
crisis and conflict situations or the danger of breaking out an armed
aggression against Romania.
Rapid Reaction. It is achieved by promptly starting the specific
procedures envisaged by the agreements on confidence - building measures,
arms control, regional cooperation, consultations within Partnership for
Peace and mechanisms included in the UN Charter.
If the threats increase, emphasizing the imminent danger of hostile actions,
the deployment of forces should be carried out immediately and adequately.
The military will have available immediate zone engagement forces and
rapid reaction forces, capable of promptly responding to any type of military
aggression. Their action will be based on a special responsiveness and
it will be timely, selective, dynamic and flexible.
Depending on the scope of threat, part of the main forces may be called
to support the actions conducted by the Rapid Reaction Force. In well-defined
situations, in accordance with the objectives of foreign policy and the
international commitments of our state, the Romanian Armed Forces should
be capable to prepare, deploy and support the participation of forces
in peace support operations, aiming at solving crisis situations affecting
the Romanian national interests or those of the international community.
In case of a large-scale military aggression against Romania or
against a partner state or a group of states, which the Romanian state
committed herself to support, the Romanian Armed Forces should be capable
of participating in joined and combined operations in compliance with
the collective defense principles and with the provisions of the new NATO
Strategic Concept.
They should also be able to carry out the commitments undertaken to international
organizations, in case of participating in peace support operations, according
to NATO and/or UN Standard Operating Procedures. Under such circumstances,
the Romanian Armed Forces should have available operational forces able
to be deployed anywhere inside the national territory and within Romania's
area of strategic interest, as well as forces capable of conducting territory
defense operations and of providing the national support for the projection
and deployment of partner (allied) forces.
General Armed Defense. In extreme situations, the generalized armed
defense will be adopted.
The National Defense System and the country's every human and material
resources will be mobilized to repel the enemy force. Under the general
armed defense, the Armed Forces should be able to defeat the armed aggression
taking place on the national territory at strategic and operational levels.
The enemy will be engaged in depth in order to reduce its offensive combat
potential. Operations outside our national territory will be conducted
to prevent continued aggression and to deprive the aggressor of the possibility
of resuming immediately the offensive action.
Restructuring
and Modernization
The main guideline in this field is, on one hand, the setting up of new
structures of management, combat, combat support and logistic support,
which are organizationally modern, mobile, flexible and having a high
deployment and protection capability and sustainability, an increased
firepower and are able to carry out multiple missions, while on the other
hand, the procurement of adequate equipment for the military. We should
reconsider the role of the information component as compared to the energetic
one in case of an armed conflict. The purpose of modernization consists
in providing an efficient, smaller in size, active, strong force, adequate
to the new security environment and also able to conduct a timely response.
The modernization is based on four major elements:
The future military force of Romania is defined as Project Force
- 2005. This force will consist of 112,000 military personnel
and 28,000 civilians. Commands, combat forces, combat support
and logistic forces will be reorganized. The number of professional military
personnel will increase from 47% to 71%. Commands and forces will be composed
of carefully designed structures, which are compact, highly effective,
efficient, flexible, compatible with NATO standards and interoperable
with the Alliance armed forces. The operational units will be maintained
at a high level of readiness. The territorial and reserve forces will
be manned, trained and kept at a level of readiness adequate to the needs
of providing territorial defense, national support and mobilization. In
our security environment, the quality of forces, their ability, the decisive
character of response and their adaptability are much more important than
their size.
- Management of the personnel to be discharged, and of the excessive
equipment holdings and infrastructure
The composition of the Project Force - 2005 will be precisely established.
This imposes the identification and definition of each and every assignment
according to rank, specialty and necessary equipment. The personnel, equipment
and infrastructure placed outside these structures will be managed in
accordance with laws and the personnel and procurement policies. Starting
with 2000, this personnel will have an active reserve status. This will
provide, on one hand, the ability to make it react to an unforeseen deterioration
of the security environment and, on the other hand, will provide the personnel
with the time required for its integration into the civil society. By
reshaping the military body, excessive infrastructure will result and
according to the situation, legal action undertaken in order to render
it profitable, will be presented to national authorities.
- The
professionalization of force
The main element of the military generating strength and will is the man
himself. The native fighter skills of the Romanian people are a guarantee
for the short-term professionalization of the Armed Forces. The present
conscription system based on the compulsory military service as well as
on the alternative military service, is an expensive way of manning. First
priority surveillance, early warning and crisis response units must include
professional soldiers who are willing to devote part of their life to
military service. Conscription will be used to man our main defense forces.
Starting with 2000, the number of conscripts to be called up will meet
the requirements of manning Project Force - 2005.
Our procurement program must be reasonable and selective throughout
the next five years. The stress will be laid on maintaining the main current
procurement programs which are a prerequisite for modernizing the equipment
starting with 2004. Only the procurement required to maintain adequate
equipment for the forces and to perform the transition to Project Force
- 2005 will be made. All other materiel modernization programs will be
re-scheduled until 2005. The re-scheduling will not affect the C4I (command,
control, communications, computers and information) development program
at all echelons, which is already a fully funded program.
The
Enhanced and More Operational Partnership
The
system of partnership is currently the best way to prepare the Romanian
Armed Forces for integration into a collective security environment. We
will actively develop our military relations with NATO member states,
using mainly the opportunities offered by the Partnership for Peace, the
Strategic Partnership with USA and by the special Partnerships developed
with United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. Besides, we shall enhance
bilateral cooperation with candidate countries for NATO membership and
with the other states capable of supporting our efforts to join the North
Atlantic Alliance. Within bilateral and multilateral cooperation, our
Armed Forces will participate in Combined Joint Task Force exercises and
multinational peace support operations. First, we shall contribute with
units nominated for peacekeeping, support and service support and with
officers, who are experts in civil-military relations.
Through these partnerships developed by our Armed Forces, we are able
to continue improving our crisis management system. Within the subregional
cooperation, we will take an active part in:
- the Multinational Peace Force - South-Eastern Europe (MPF-SEE) together
with Albania, Bulgaria, FYROM, Greece, Italy and Turkey;
- the
Central-European Cooperation Initiative (CENCOOP), together with Austria,
Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary;
- the
Multinational Stand-by High Readiness Brigade (SHIRBRIG); the Black
Sea Naval Cooperation Group (BLACKSEAFOR) - to include Bulgaria, Georgia,
Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine.
The
Gradual Integration
For the purpose of achieving national security objectives, Romania must
get integrated into Euro-Atlantic and European institutions and enhance
its role in other security structures. NATO integration is the first priority
and it is the best option for Romania to advance towards a collective
security environment. o NATO Integration. The Washington Summit gave a
new dimension to NATO enlargement by promoting the concept of Membership
Action Plan. The Romanian Armed Forces are firmly committed to executing
the military requirements of their national program.
In this respect, the main courses of action of our Armed Forces are the
following:
- the
achievement of the objectives established in the annual national programs
for integration;
- the
full engagement in the Operational Partnership for Peace;
- the
approach to security issues and the process of defense planning according
to the new NATO strategic concept;
- the
gradual increasing of our participation in joint structures and actions,
mainly in strategic and operational planning, command, control, communications
and information systems, airspace defense management, training and infrastructure
systems, as well as in coordinating movements;
- provide
actual capabilities for collective defense and for the implementation
of other measures taken by the Alliance;
- the
achievement of standardization and interoperability.
Within
the framework of NATO partnership cooperation, Romania supports the development
of the European Security and Defense Identity (ESDI).
This constitutes an important element of the Romanian integration policy,
representing a tool in approaching and dealing with the future regional
challenges. We intend to support and participate in planned crisis management
exercises, response operations included, in Peace Support Operations (PSOs),
search and rescue and humanitarian assistance operations. o OSCE and United
Nations. We will continue to participate in peace support operations.
Our participation in this type of operations will prove that Romania is
fully committed to building up the new regional and European security
architecture.
Our participation will be based upon the impact on our national interests.
Especially in OSCE, we will strongly support preventive diplomacy, conflict
prevention and post conflict rehabilitation initiatives of the European
states. Commitments will be turned to facts by the participation of the
Romanian Armed Forces in the military cooperation initiatives for the
establishment of multinational military forces, designated especially
to conduct peace-keeping and humanitarian missions, under UN or OSCE mandate.
Arms
Control
Arms control plays an important part in our integration strategy. Romania
is party to several international arms control treaties, which have contributed
significantly to lowering the tensions in Europe and to limiting the spread
of conventional arms and weapons of mass-destruction. The priorities in
this stage aim at strengthening and developing measures in order to enhance
confidence and transparency in Central and Eastern Europe, and also the
efficiency of bilateral and regional agreements, as well as to contribute
to solving tensions and conflicts in the vicinity of Romania (former -
Yugoslav area, the European part of the former-Soviet area). A basic task
is the implementation of the Adapted CFE Treaty, representing one of the
fundamental elements of the new European security architecture. We also
support and contribute to other arms control initiatives, while aiming
at strengthening the national verification capabilities.
