The Romanian Armed Forces ( or Armata Română) are the military forces of Romania. It comprises the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Force. The current Chief of the General Staff of Defence is Lieutenant General Gheorghiță Vlad who is managed by the Minister of National Defence while the president is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces during wartime.
As of 2025, the Armed Forces number around 90,000 active personnel and 55,000 reserves. In 2023, the Land Forces had a reported strength of 35,500, the Air Force 11,700, the Naval Forces 8,000 (as of 2026), and Joint Forces 17,500. Total defence spending currently accounts for 2.45% of total national GDP, which represents approximately 11.2 billion US dollars. The Armed Forces are built for territorial defence, with support to NATO and EU missions, and contributions to regional and global stability and security.
Military service is voluntary in peacetime (since 2007), and compulsory in case of curfew, war, or national emergency.
History of the Romanian Armed Forces
The modern armies of Moldavia and Wallachia were formed in 1830 following Regulamentul Organic. During the 1848 Wallachian Revolution, Gheorghe Magheru assembled an army at Râureni (now part of Râmnicu Vâlcea). However, Magheru ordered his troops to disband when the Ottoman forces swept into Bucharest to stop the revolution. Liviu Maior, 1848–1849. Români și unguri în revoluție (Romanians and Hungarians in the revolution), Bucharest, Editura Enciclopedică, 1998.
Romanian War of Independence
The current Romanian Land Forces were formed in 1860, immediately after the unification of Wallachia with Moldavia, and were commanded by Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Domnitor of Romania until his abdication in 1866. In 1877, at the request of Nikolai Konstantinovich, Grand Duke of RussiaThe telegram of Nikolai to Carol I (in Romanian): "Turcii îngrãmãdind cele mai mari trupe la Plevna ne nimicesc. Rog sã faci fuziune, demonstratiune si dacã-i posibil sã treci Dunãrea cu armatã dupã cum doresti. Între Jiu si Corabia demonstratiunea aceasta este absolut necesarã pentru înlesnirea miscãrilor mele" ("The Turks massed together the greatest troop at Pleven to lay us waste. I ask you to make mergers, demonstrations and if it is possible cross the Danube with the army as you wish. Between Jiu and Corabia, the demonstration is absolutely necessary to facilitate my movements.) the Romanian army joined the Russian forces, and led by King Carol I, fought in what was to become the Romanian War of Independence. They participated in the Siege of Plevna and several other battles. The Romanians won the war, but suffered about 27,000 casualties. Until World War I, the Romanian army didn't face any other serious actions, although it participated in the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria.
Second Balkan War
Romania mobilized its army on 5 July 1913, with intention of seizing Southern Dobruja, and declared war on Bulgaria on 10 July.Hall (2000), p. 117. In a diplomatic circular that said, "Romania does not intend either to subjugate the polity nor defeat the army of Bulgaria", the Romanian government endeavoured to allay international concerns about its motives and about increased bloodshed. According to Richard Hall, "the entrance of Romania into the conflict made the Bulgarian situation untenable and the Romanian thrust across the Danube was the decisive military act of the Second Balkan War."Hall (2000), pp. 117–18.
World War I
On 6 July 1916, Romania declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary, following the initial success of the Brusilov Offensive (a major Russian offensive against the armies of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front). The Romanian armies entered Transylvania (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), together with Russian forces. However, German forces under the command of General Erich von Falkenhayn stalled the attack in November, 1916, and drove back the Romanians. At the same time, Austrian and Turkish troops invaded southern Romania, forcing the country into a two-front war. The Central Powers drove deep into Romania and conquered the south of the country (Wallachia, including Bucharest) by the end of 1916. The Romanian forces, led by Marshal Constantin Prezan, retreated into the north-east part of Romania (Moldavia). In the summer of 1917 however, Prezan, aided by the future Marshal, General Ion Antonescu, successfully defended the remaining unoccupied territories against German and Austro-Hungarian forces led by Field Marshal August von Mackensen.Vincent Esposito, Atlas of American Wars, Vol 2, text for map 40 General Alexandru Averescu led the Second Army in the victories of the Battle of Mărăști (22 July to 1 August 1917) and the Battle of Mărășești (6 August to 8 September 1917). As a result of the Russian Revolution, Romania was left isolated and unable to continue the war, and was forced to sign the Treaty of Bucharest with the Central Powers.John Keegan, World War I, pg. 308. Later on, in 1919, Germany agreed, in the Treaty of Versailles Article 259, to renounce all the benefits provided to it by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1918. After the successful offensive on the Thessaloniki front, which put Bulgaria out of the war, Romania re-entered the war on 10 November 1918, a day before its end in the West.World War I Documents, Articles 248-263 . Retrieved on February 28, 2008.
World War II
After General (later Marshal) Ion Antonescu took power in September 1940, Romania signed the Tripartite Pact with the Axis powers and subsequently took part in Operation Barbarossa in 1941. An expeditionary force invaded the Soviet Union in Bessarabia and southern Ukraine, alongside the German Wehrmacht. The expeditionary force, 'Army Group Antonescu', was composed on 22 June 1941 of the 3rd Army, the 4th Army, the 2nd Army Corps, and the 11th Infantry Division.Leo Niehorster, Army Group Antonescu, 22 June 1941 , accessed June 2011 The 3rd Army comprised the 4th Army Corps (6th and 7th Infantry Divisions), the Cavalry Corps, the Mountain Corps, two separate artillery battalion, a TA unit, and the Air Force's 3rd Army Cooperation Command. The 4th Army consisted of the 3rd Army Corps, the 5th Army Corps, the 11th Army Corps (two fortress brigades), and the 4th Army Cooperation Command. The army group-level 2nd Army Corps, under Major General N. Macici, controlled the 9th and 10th Infantry Divisions and the 7th Cavalry Brigade. Additionally the was formed for service on the Eastern Front. The Army Group's first offensive, in conjunction with the Eleventh Army, Operation Munchen, enabled Romania to retake the territory immediately east of the Dnister, former part of Moldavia. The Romanian Armies saw their first major battles at Odessa and Sevastopol, and in 1942 advanced with other Axis forces deeper into Soviet territory during Operation Blue.
The greatest disaster for the Romanian expeditionary force on the Eastern Front came at Stalingrad, where, during the Soviet counter-offensive of November 1942, the thinly spread forces of the Third Army (deployed north of Stalingrad) and of the Fourth Army (deployed south of Stalingrad) were attacked by vastly superior Soviet forces and suffered combined losses of some 158,000 personnel.
During April–May 1944 the Romanian forces led by General Mihai Racoviță, together with elements of the German Sixth Army were responsible for defending Northern Romania during the Soviet First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, and took part in the Battles of Târgu Frumos. In late August 1944, the Red Army entered eastern Romania. The Battle of Jassy took place on 20–25 August 1944. 150,000 German soldiers died (80,000 in Stalingrad), 106,000 Germans was taken as prisoners by the Red Army (108,000 in Stalingrad); the fate of the rest 80,000 remain unknown. On 23 August 1944, a coup led by King Michael I of Romania deposed Marshal Antonescu and set up a pro-Soviet government. It has been estimated that the royal coup shortened the war by six months.Constantiniu, Florin, O istorie sinceră a poporului român ("An Honest History of the Romanian People"), Ed. Univers Enciclopedic, București, 1997, . Romania soon declared war on Nazi Germany, and the First and Fourth Armies were pressed into action. After the expelling of the last Wehrmacht remnants from Romania, the Romanian Armies took part in the Siege of Budapest and the Prague Offensive of May 1945.
Highlights (Axis) Romanian engineers contributed to the construction of the longest bridge ever built under fire – the bridge over the Dnieper at Beryslav. The Romanian capture of Odessa was the most important wartime conquest – without substantial German support – by any of the minor European Axis powers.Mark Axworthy, London: Arms and Armour, 1995, Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945, p. 58 On 1 September 1942, the Romanian 3rd Mountain Division took part in the largest amphibious assault undertaken in Europe by the Axis Powers during the war. In late 1942, General Ioan Dumitrache captured Nalchik, the furthest point of Axis advance in the Caucasus. Romania provided up to 40% of the Axis personnel in the Kuban Bridgehead. On 7 April 1943, a single Romanian battalion restored the front of an entire German division.Mark Axworthy, London: Arms and Armour, 1995, Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945, pp. 127-128 When an entire German army (the 6th) came under Romanian command in May 1944 (as part of general Petre Dumitrescu's Armeegruppe), German commanders came under the actual (rather than nominal) command of their foreign allies for the first time in the war. Romania received more Knight's Crosses than any other non-German Axis power. Ion Antonescu was the first foreigner to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Mihail Lascăr was the first foreign recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. The Romanian Mareșal tank destroyer is credited with being the inspiration for the German Hetzer. In terms of heavy armored vehicles, Romania captured 2 KV-1 tanks, 1 IS-2 tank and 1 ISU-152 assault gun. These were the only heavy AFVs that Romania possessed throughout the war, as the country's armor establishment - even as late as July 1944 - never went beyond medium tanks and assault guns.Mark Axworthy, London: Arms and Armour, 1995, Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945, pp. 153 and 221
Cold War
After the Romanian Communist Party seized power, the Armed Forces of Romania was reformed to mirror the soviet model. It was reestablished as the Romanian People's Army () under the original supervision of Minister of Defence, Emil Bodnăraș. Between 1955 and 1991, the Romanian People's Army took part in events of the Warsaw Pact, of which Romania was a member. During this period, the army was supplied with weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union. From 1947 to 1960, the country divided into 3 military regions: Western (Cluj), Eastern (Bacău), and South (Bucharest).
In 1980 the Romanian Land Forces was reorganized in 4 Army Commands: 1st (Bucharest), 2nd (Buzau), 3rd (Craiova) and 4th (Cluj-Napoca). In the four Army Commands were 8 Mechanized Divisions, 2 Tank Divisions and 1 Tank Brigade, as well as 4 Mountain Brigades (specialized motorized infantry units).
In 1989 the RLF had, as armored equipment, a total of 2715 combat vehicles: 945 outdated (soviet WW-2 type) T-34-85 tanks, 790 soviet and Czechoslovak T-55/-55A/-55AM tanks, 415 Romanian built TR-77-580, 535 Romanian built TR-85-800 and 30 Soviet T-72 "Ural-1" tanks.
Post-1990