Romanian Armed Forces Photos

[Radu2]

Another few random images from Afghanistan missions

[Radu2]

And some with training in Romania





And couple paratroopers



And here an article about Romanian Future Soldier System

http://www.soldiermod.com/volume-5/romania.html

Sounds interesting and good, but i still wait for some new fighter planes first (or some medium range nuclear balistic missiles better )

[BogT]

My impression is that the Romanian Future Soldier System is an ongoing program, a testbed for future standardized infantry equipment rather than a specific goal on its own. So small annual increments are made (better helmet, better ballistic protection, etc), without the need for "strategic" like expenses (like it's needed for the fighters). To my knowledge, the new assault rifle for instance should be part of this program (but I could be wrong).

P.S.> ^^^ I think the last photo shows members of the 495th Infantry Battalion. They used to be a proper paratrooper battalion but today they are just an infantry one. So if the photo is recent, it means that they kept a paratrooper certified company (the battalion command tried to do so in the past). But unlike the 498th and the 60th paratrooper battalions, they are not part of Special Operation Forces.

[BogT]

The 307th marine infantry battalion.
Training photos, March 2012. From the Romanian Navy website: http://www.navy.ro/index.html

[BogT]

River Flotilla, 67 Gunboat Squadron. Mihail Kogălniceanu class and Brutar-II class river monitors.
Training photos, May 2012. From the Romanian Navy website: http://www.navy.ro/index.html

Just realized that Mihail Kogălniceanu class probably represent one of the largest and best armed river monitors in Europe (or even the world). A river mini battleship.
2 × 100 mm (3.9 in) guns
2 × twin 30 mm guns
2 × quad 14.5 mm machine guns
2 × 40 × 122 mm MRL
+ Strela 2M MANPAD

[Radu2]

My impression is that the Romanian Future Soldier System is an ongoing program, a testbed for future standardized infantry equipment rather than a specific goal on its own. So small annual increments are made (better helmet, better ballistic protection, etc), without the need for "strategic" like expenses (like it's needed for the fighters). To my knowledge, the new assault rifle for instance should be part of this program (but I could be wrong).

Yes, its advance step by step, with various elements tested to be intergated later in the bigger package. Which is a good thing i think, this is not as a hurry as those damn planes, which i hope they will get them soon. SAAB made a great offer after all, i think they chose American one, but i hope at least is near the Swedish one as benefits (offset for our industry, new planes, payment in tranches etc).
I aw as well the "new" assault rifle prototype, which is an improvement (kinda Russian AK-12 style) of the older PA md 86, now in 5,56x45 mm calibre. Its not bad after all, AK type of rifles is stll the most reliable and simple, and is good enough as accuracy. Anyway, if they will make the final product a bit lighter will be great, and if they put on all rifles that IOR optic will be excellent

P.S.> ^^^ I think the last photo shows members of the 495th Infantry Battalion. They used to be a proper paratrooper battalion but today they are just an infantry one. So if the photo is recent, it means that they kept a paratrooper certified company (the battalion command tried to do so in the past). But unlike the 498th and the 60th paratrooper battalions, they are not part of Special Operation Forces.

Thats possible, i saw their patches and i thought they are paratroopers. In such case i think they kept a company with paratrooper qualified personel.

[Radu2]

Another random pics (few years old however) from Afghanistan (some i think are from Iraq, i know some was posted a while ago in another part but that topic didnt go much)

[hasos]

Very nice pictures!!

[BogT]

Pictures from BSDA 2012 of the new Romanian assault rifle. I have been waiting for them for about two years.
I think the pictures were taken personally by the owner of the RomaniaMilitaryBlog: http://rumaniamilitary.wordpress.com...sda-2012-poze/








My comments
The new assault weapon (5.56x45mm NATO ammunition) is meant to replace the current (5.45×39mm) standard assault rifle, the "Automatic Rifle Model 1986" (known as the AIMS-74 on the US civilian market).
The weapon will be manufactured locally at Cugir, by a subsidiary of RomArm. From the photos, it is clear that the same AKM mechanism has been used, with a few slight changes.

From the back:
1. A telescopic buttstock is used instead of "the wire" one. I for one, am happy the did not go for AR15 type buttstocks and I hope it's foldable (since AK's don't have the recoil spring at the back, there is no reason not to go for the foldable option).
2. The fire selector is smaller (it should be ambidextrous, but no photos from the other side).
3. A big thing is how they mounted the Picatinny rail on the dust cover (welded on). However, the dust cover appears not to be removable anymore. It is now attached to the frontal trunnion (the weapon is made by stamped steel, held together by a front and rear trunnions). It's the same idea as for the Polish Beryl, where the rail support was mounted like that, over the classical dust cover. This choice should provide the stability needed to mount optics. The location of the optics are in the same part of the weapon as for AR15 (backwards) and not like some AK mountings (forwards, closer to the gas block).
4. The hand guards have been modified. I can not tell if they are still two pieces or just one.
5. The charging handle is now close to the frontal grip. Going for this design should allow for a left/right hand option.
6. Notice the use of the same double angle gas port as for the old version (I have a suspicion this is for copyright reasons).

In the end, it looks nice! Since it's stamped steel (not milled) it should be cheep to produce, therefor affordable (before people start saying that milled weapons offer better accuracy, remember this is an AK mechanism and no long-stroke piston weapon will give the same accuracy as a short-stroke piston or direct impingement gas systems; stamped is just as good if done correctly and at a fraction of the cost). The common parts with the old weapon means few changes are requited to the production line (important to keep the production local) and the reliability will be preserved (the weapon was tested Afghanistan - no information on how that went, just rumors that it was OK). The optics location means that the same US weapon tactics can be used. This is important for the future and should provide an easier transition to the G36 for the troops switching to Special Forces.

I made some crops for better clarity.



P.S. Current assault weapon, for comparison.

[armored_diplomacy]

River Flotilla, 67 Gunboat Squadron. Mihail Kogălniceanu class and Brutar-II class river monitors.
Training photos, May 2012. From the Romanian Navy website: http://www.navy.ro/index.html

Just realized that Mihail Kogălniceanu class probably represent one of the largest and best armed river monitors in Europe (or even the world). A river mini battleship.
2 × 100 mm (3.9 in) guns
2 × twin 30 mm guns
2 × quad 14.5 mm machine guns
2 × 40 × 122 mm MRL
+ Strela 2M MANPAD

Wow ! that´s really impressive.
BTW, is that a "former tank" turret ? I wonder (in case the answer is yes) how they manage to compensate the ship´s movement while firing, and if they kept the original optics

[Jawzzy]

Since the vast majority of Romanian troops don't have optics anyway, why on earth didn't they move the rear sight to the rear end of the picatiny rail in order to fix one of the basic shortcomings of the AK, short sight radius?
That should have been the first thing to fix on the AK platform.

This is what you get when people not passionate about firearms make improvements to firearms.... They don't even understand the shortcomings of the basic design and they try to "fix things".

[Volk01]

I think that if this assault rifle will be approved by the army they will also buy optics, probably something made in Romania.

Mira Reflex


IOR Pitbull 1x/4x


IOR Valdada


Here we actually have a combination of the last 2


P.S. The new assault rifle I think is actualy just a PA md2000 with few modifications. Here's a pic, for comparison.

Wow ! that´s really impressive.
BTW, is that a "former tank" turret ? I wonder (in case the answer is yes) how they manage to compensate the ship´s movement while firing, and if they kept the original optics

Indeed that is a tank turret with a 100mm gun the same used on the TR-85.

[MyNameIsEarl]

What is this weapon? Looks like a G3... kind of.

Is this the new Romanian assault rifle?

From different sources (wiki, boards etc) it seems Romanian Army uses a rather large array of assault weapons (most in small numbers). That probably makes ownership rather expensive and hinders units' inoperativeness.

I wonder why they don't buy the Tavor and build it locally. Given the good relations with Israel. And considering that at least on neighbour already has done so (Ukraine). The Tavor is more than appropriate for Romania - simple, tough, accurate - one of the best bullpups around...

[Volk01]

That's a SIG 551, the new romanian assault rifle is the one presented by BogT

[MyNameIsEarl]

Ah OK. So they are going for a Kalashnikov. I thought they wanted a Western assault rifle... Hmmm - strange choice...