CSAT (the Supreme Council for the Country Defense) has become a place of political confrontations, and major decisions are to be taken after the Presidential elections.

The Ministry of Defense has a much lower budget in 2009 as far as the "endowment" is concerned. Secretary of State Aurel Lascu, Head of Armaments Department, has said that the Ministry has about 200 million US dollars to finance the ongoing endowment programs of the Army.

Initially, the allocated budget sums were almost double, but the budget adjustments reduced the sum to this minimal level. The repeated chronic under-financing of the Army budget determined procurement and payment delays and renegotiations with the suppliers each year. According to the same official there are 6 endowment programs planned for the end of this year.

Although the weapons procurement chapter is "thin", the discussions about this topic refer to sums ten times larger that are supported by the "golden" acquisition - the multi-purpose aircraft. This program is estimated to cost around 4 billion euros, and it has obviously become a target for the big players in the industry. Several channels and higher levels have been used to influence Romania. It is no secret that the procurement of this type of aircraft has also become a political struggle between the institutions in the countries bidding for it.

Performance, price, and technical level are secondary, the word of the Air Army influencing the purchase in a very small extent. If, during the Tariceanu Government, the Defense Minister Teodor Melescanu evoked the potential purchase of a European aircraft - Swedish, French or German-Italian-Spanish-English - now, they speak about the American version of it.

In fact, according to the declaration of the new U.S. Ambassador in Bucharest, Mark Gittenstein, "the U.S. Government