The US Embassy in Romania informed on Wednesday the Ministry of National Defence that the US Congress approved Romania’s request to purchase High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) as per the standard American procedures.

According to a release of the Ministry of National Defence, the program is now in an intermediate stage, as technical talks and negotiations to determine the final configuration of the acquisition, technology transfer options and the involvement of the national defence industry in providing the necessary production and maintenance equipment are next.

Under the HIMARS endowment program, Romania requested the acquisition of 54 HIMARS launchers and auxiliary equipment for three combat battalions.

The decision to have the Romanian Armed Forces equipped with the HIMARS military hardware derives from the need to provide the national force with modern artillery equipment that contributes to strengthening the national defence capability and to increasing the interoperability with the allied forces, by having in place a reliable deterrence capability, the release states.

The HIMARS hardware acquisition is one of the eight key programs set forth in the 2017 – 2026 Romanian Armed Forces Endowment Plan for which Parliament has given in May the go-ahead for the initiation of the procedures to award the relevant contracts.

The Romanian ministry also states that HIMARS is the second request for a US missile system to receive the approval of the US Congress this year, after the seven surface-to-air PAC-3 PATRIOT missiles that underwent the same procedure last month.