Victor Yevpak and Mihai Filip
According to OVES, the two companies will open a joint manufacturing facility in Cluj-Napoca, where a team of about 30 people will initially be employed, and the planned production volume will be approximately 1,000 drones per month. The drones manufactured there will be equipped with Nemesis AI technology from OVES Enterprise.
In the medium term, OVES and eDrone intend to expand their drone production capacity in Romania to between 10,000 and 15,000 units per month, depending on orders received and the requirements of defense programs.
“The infrastructure needed to begin operations is already in place, which allows us to start production without major initial investments. eDrone will transfer production processes and know-how, while OVES Enterprise will coordinate local operations, technology integration, and the adaptation of systems to customer requirements,” said Mihai Filip, CEO of OVES Enterprise.
The plant in Cluj-Napoca will cover the entire production process, from the integration of components and installation of systems developed by OVES Enterprise to configuration, testing, and preparation for mission execution.
In the first phase, the Cluj-Napoca plant will produce three types of military drones: first-person view (FPV) drones, interceptor drones, and reconnaissance drones. The first prototypes manufactured in Romania are scheduled to be unveiled this fall, after which they will undergo testing and demonstrations in real-world conditions. In the future, the Cluj-Napoca plant’s production portfolio could be expanded to include up to 27 drone models, depending on market demand and the development of defense procurement programs in Romania and across Europe.
And what about Moldova?
In June, President Maia Sandu stated that the authorities are preparing legislative amendments that will allow for investments and public-private partnerships in the defense sector with the aim of developing production capabilities for UAVs and countermeasures against them.
According to the president, the current legal framework does not allow for the development of such projects in collaboration with private investors, so the government has been tasked with preparing the necessary amendments.
“I have asked the government, especially in light of recent events, to begin introducing or preparing amendments to the legislation. On the one hand, the state must produce these drones and countermeasures, but on the other hand, we must also allow the private sector to do so. Our country lacks new technologies and experts because we have not trained such specialists, but there are foreign investors who already possess these technologies. The current law does not allow this, so there is no law that would permit public-private partnerships between the state and investors or even private investments, whether foreign or local. Now we will do this through legal channels; we will amend the law and try to attract investment, primarily to establish these public-private partnerships, but perhaps we may also succeed in attracting some foreign investment, because we need these systems to counter the drones that are increasingly appearing on our country’s territory and posing a real danger,” the head of state said.
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