Acting Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu said Romania is considering the platforms after an AI drone was tested at Constanța, its main Black Sea port. EU SAFE defense funds are a possible financing route.
An AI-powered maritime drone has already been piloted at Romania's main Black Sea port. Acting Interior Minister Cătălin Predoiu said July 10 that the country's interior ministry is now formally weighing whether to acquire the same kind of autonomous platform for the Romanian Coast Guard.
At a press conference in Constanța, Predoiu described the program as a Ministry of Internal Affairs initiative. He said the platforms would be tested in cooperation with the coast guard and named a mission set of illegal migration, smuggling, human trafficking, and drug trafficking in the Black Sea.
The purchases could be financed through a component of the EU's SAFE defense funding program, a Brussels-backed instrument Romania has already tapped under a separate €1 billion Ministry of Internal Affairs allocation. That allocation sits inside a broader €16 billion SAFE envelope approved for Romania, though Predoiu did not put a number on the maritime share.
Predoiu referred only to a cooperating partner as "the company in question," leaving the prospective vendor undisclosed.
The announcement follows a live demonstration of an AI-powered maritime drone at the Port of Constanța for port infrastructure protection. The pilot gives Romania a working reference point as the procurement question moves forward.
He said the ministry is "focusing on" acquiring the platforms and "looking into" purchases. No procurement notice, contract award, or delivery timeline has been published, and the SAFE-funded component for maritime surveillance has not been itemized.
Companion ministry communications have pointed separately to an effort to increase detection and surveillance capacity in Romanian coastal waters. The next concrete step is a published procurement notice, or a SAFE project line item identifying a vendor and unit count.