Romania completed operationalizing its second Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target system during NATO’s Ramstein Legacy 24 military drills the country co-hosted with Bulgaria from June 3 to 14.
In a NATO statement, Col. Cristian Popovici, Public Affairs Division officer in charge at the Romanian Ministry of National Defence, said the country’s “national key objective was to complete the operationalization of the second Patriot system” in the Ramstein Legacy 24 live firing at the country’s Capu Midia range. Demos on the Patriot’s third and fourth systems will follow for the batteries’ expected combat-readiness certification by mid-2025 as part of Romania’s national integrated air defense system, he added.
Other Ramstein Legacy 24 activities in Romania included command-control exercises and demos on various missile systems, ground-based air defense and aircraft from participating countries.
Organized by the Allied Air Command in Ramstein, Germany, the 2024 NATO exercise added tests of counter-unmanned aerial systems by a team from the alliance’s Communications and Information Agency. The team experimented with its concepts drawn from the Ukraine war to defend allied Surface-Based Air and Missile Defence units against UAS threats.
According to Maj. Tomas Kurpas, Slovak project officer for Ramstein Legacy 24, 3,200 allied elements from 20 NATO countries joined the exercise at nine Romanian and Bulgarian locations, deploying 22 firing units and more than 30 flying assets.