The contract for the purchase of a Turkish corvette will be concluded in November, as an intergovernmental purchase deal, National Defense Minister Ionut Mosteanu declared on Thursday.
Asked in a press conference at the Victoria Palace of Government, if Romania will have to pay an additional amount to equip the vessel with a missile launching system and when would the military watercraft be operational, Mosteanu replied that "It will be operational from day one. So the corvette is ready, it's functional, it's new".
"We have to sign the contract, we recently received the approval of Parliament, now the contract negotiation is underway on all the details that will be established with the Turkish government. It is a government-to-government acquisition, the contract will be finalized sometime in November, then we will pay the advance followed by the remaining installments, and the corvette will enter the service of the Romanian Army. So, it is ready, it has NATO-grade weapons already mounted on it, I couldn't list now all the armament it carries," explained Minister Mosteanu.
In addition to this standard weaponry, the Romanian Navy will receive Naval Strikes Missiles that will equip all the Romanian military vessels, the DefMin added.
On September 8, Minister Ionut Mosteanu announced that the Parliament's Defense Committees had issued a favorable opinion to the purchase of a light Turkish corvette for 223 million euros, VAT excluded. The costs for missiles and other additional equipment to the default set of weapons will add to this amount, Mosteanu said back then.
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