DefMin Ciuca: I congratulate Romanian, US troops who carried out Rapid Falcon exercise very fast

The Minister of National Defence, Nicolae Ciuca, on Thursday congratulated, at Mihail Kogalniceanu, the Romanian and American soldiers for "managing to carry out in a very short time a very important exercise" - Rapid Falcon -, adding that "some time ago" it was difficult to conceive that such an activity could take place.

"We can see now how, through all that we done until now and all the efforts that have been made by the planners, commanders and troops of the two armies, to prepare and conduct the training activities and especially missions that we carried out together, the elements of a real partnership are starting to materialize, in concrete activities that have no other purpose than to contribute essentially to everything that means credibility and, of course, this part of interoperability between the two armies," said Ciuca.

According to him, the results of the multi-annual endowment programmes of the Romanian Army "become visible."

"Here we have only a part of the equipment that recently entered the endowment of the Romanian Army, (...) we have these systems that represent a high technology transfer and contribute to the creation of military capabilities (...) in order to be able to take all measures in such a way that we can be able to ensure our defence (...) and, at the same time, we will be able to strengthen our credible ally status in all that is related to the strengthening of the deterrence and defence on the Eastern Flank of the North Atlantic Alliance and European Union. These equipment completes the capabilities already achieved," Nicolae Ciucă stated.

According to the Ministry of National Defence, over 130 Romanian and American soldiers with 30 technical means participated, on Thursday, in the Romanian-American exercise Rapid Falcon, organized by the General Staff of the Defence Forces and the US Land Forces in Europe, at the 57 Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base and Capul Midia Range.

The US partners participated in the artillery firing exercise with two HIMARS mobile missile systems, from the 41st Field Artillery Brigade, deployed in the Grafenwoehr garrison in Germany, and the Romanian Land Forces, with three multiple LAROM missile launchers, from the 8th LAROM Brigade "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" from Focsani.