Area Handbook for Romania Part 26

Pact members commit a substantial portion, or all, of their fully trained and equipped units to the pact's use. Committed units are considered to be part of an integral force. Romanian forces have a role in pact plans but, because they have failed to partic.i.p.ate in several recent pact maneuvers, Western observers have expressed doubt that the organization would depend upon effective Romanian cooperation during the first phase of a major conflict or for any partic.i.p.ation in an action such as the Czechoslovak invasion of 1968.

At the time of the pact's inception, leaders of the various member states were preoccupied with the security of their countries and their regimes. A threat from the new North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was real to them, as was danger from dissident elements within their own borders. It is doubtful whether in 1955 any one of the leadership groups seriously considered that its regime might--by itself or in deference to the wishes of its people--undertake economic or social practices or deviate from the ideology in ways that could be considered dangerous to the solidarity of the alliance. By 1965, however, Romania had embarked upon an independent course, to the extent that it, like Czechoslovakia, had reason to fear that it could be the object of retaliatory pact action.

In his Bucharest Declaration of July 1966, Nicolae Ceausescu--who at that time was head of the party but had not yet taken over as chief of state--announced that he considered the Warsaw Pact a temporary alliance and that it would lose its validity if NATO were to cease functioning.

Then, in 1968, Romania openly supported the Czechoslovak government, denounced the pact's invasion of that country, and did not partic.i.p.ate in it. Since that time Romania has not permitted other Warsaw Pact forces either to hold exercises on its soil or to cross it for maneuvers in another country. As a result, Bulgaria can send forces to other Eastern European countries only by air or by way of the Black Sea and the Soviet Union. Pact exercises held in Bulgaria during the summer of 1971 were performed by Bulgarian troops; other countries, including Romania, sent observers.

In addition to holding its military relations with the Warsaw Pact to a minimum, Romania's armed forces have attempted to make contacts with the military establishments in other countries. A military delegation visited Yugoslavia in 1971, and feelers have been put out to arrange other such conferences. A ranking military spokesman has stated that the army was developing friendly relations with its counterparts in all the countries of the socialist system in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He added that Romania is increasing its relations of cooperation and collaboration with the nonsocialist states, as a contribution to the development of mutual trust.

MANPOWER, TRAINING, AND SUPPORT

Manpower

There are approximately 4.86 million men in the military age group, that is, the male population between the ages of eighteen and forty-nine.

About 3.4 million--70 percent--are considered physically and otherwise fit for military service (see ch. 3).

A somewhat larger percentage, however, of the 180,000 young men who reach the draft age annually are physically able to serve. The preponderance of armed forces and most security troop personnel are acquired during the annual draft calls. Because of the short duty tours required of conscripts, it was necessary in 1971 to call up most of the eligible group in order to maintain the forces' strengths.

Men released from active duty, whether they served voluntarily or involuntarily, remain subject to recall until the age of fifty. Although nearly 100,000 men have been released from the services each year since about 1950, only a small portion of them are considered trained reserves. Only those recently discharged could be mobilized quickly and go into action without extensive retraining. There is insufficient emphasis on periodic reserve training to keep many of the older men in satisfactory physical condition or up to date on new weapons and tactics.

Young men of draft age are potentially good soldier material. There is almost no illiteracy within the adult population under fifty-five years of age. A large percentage of conscripts have rural, village, or small city backgrounds and are in better physical condition than the average urban youth. On the minus side, because the country has a low standard of living, conscripts have little familiarity with mechanical and electronic equipment.

Based on the numbers of males in lower age groups, the size of the annual military manpower pool will remain at about 1971 levels throughout the 1970s. It will then drop by nearly 25 percent during the first half of the 1980s but will rise sharply--and again temporarily--in the latter half of that decade. With the exception of the high and low periods during the 1980s, governmental population experts expect little overall change in available manpower during the remainder of the century.

Training

Since about the mid-1960s little public attention has been focused on the armed forces. Their capabilities, reliability, and preparedness have been taken for granted or have not been the subject of undue concern.

Unit training and small exercises have been given little coverage in local media. Training programs, however, are dictated in large degree by organization and equipment and have changed little since 1960.

With the standardization of units, weapons, and tactics accompanying the formation of the Warsaw Pact, training was accomplished in Romania as directed in translated Soviet manuals. In the Warsaw Pact system the training cycle starts when a conscript arrives at his duty organization for individual training. This includes strenuous physical conditioning, basic instruction in drill, care and use of personal weapons, and schooling in a variety of subjects ranging from basic military skills and tactics to political indoctrination.

Individual training develops into small group instruction, usually around the weapon or equipment the individual will be using. As groups became more proficient with their equipment, they use it in exercises with larger tactical units under increasingly realistic conditions.

Romanian forces have not partic.i.p.ated since the late 1960s in the Warsaw Pact exercises that are usually held at the conclusion of the training cycle.

During early individual training, men are selected for a variety of special schools. Short courses, in cooking and baking or shoe repairing, from which a man emerges ready to work, do not require volunteers and do not extend the mandatory duty tour. Longer courses may involve schooling for most of the conscript tour or require time on the job after the school is completed to develop a fully useful capability, leaving no time for the newly acquired skill to be of value to the service. In such cases, selections to a school are made from volunteers who are willing to extend their period of active duty.

The most capable and cooperative conscripts are offered the opportunity to attend noncommissioned officer schools. They must accept voluntarily and agree to a longer period of service.

Frontier troops receive much the same individual training as ground force conscripts. Their later instruction involves less large-unit tactics and more police training and special subjects dealing with order doc.u.ments and regulations. Larger percentages of naval and air forces personnel are required in mechanical or electronic work. Most of those who attend technical schools are required to serve for two years.

Reserve training receives little publicity and probably has low priority. A few reserves are sometimes called to active outfits for short refresher training, but there is little, if any, formal reserve training in local all-reserve types of units. The militia (a paramilitary organization subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs) would probably be drawn upon to augment the services in an emergency. It could be expected to provide better trained personnel, in better physical condition, than would be acquired calling up untrained reserves (see ch. 12).

The General Military Academy in Bucharest--usually called the Military Academy--is a four-year university-level school whose graduates receive regular officer commissions and who are expected to serve as career officers. It also offers mid-career command and staff types of courses.

An advanced academy, the Military Technical Academy, requires that its applicants have a university degree; they may be military officers, but they are not required to have had military service or military education of any sort. The academy offers advanced degrees in military and aeronautical engineering and in a variety of other technical areas.

Morale and Conditions of Service

The mandatory tour of duty for basic ground and air force personnel was set at sixteen months in 1964. Naval conscripts and some air force personnel are required to serve two years. The length of extra service required of those who apply and are accepted for special training or who wish to become noncommissioned officers varies with the amount of training required, with the rank attained, or with the added responsibility of the new duty a.s.signment; but it is accepted or rejected on a voluntary basis.

Officers and noncommissioned officers serve voluntarily, and morale is usually satisfactory within those groups. The service experience of the noncommissioned-officer applicants and the long training period required of officer candidates a.s.sure that both leadership groups understand and freely accept the conditions of service before they a.s.sume their duty responsibilities.

Conditions are reasonably good, and morale in the armed forces is not a source of unusual concern to the national leadership. There are few exhortations to put extra effort into political indoctrination; a large, heavily armed security force to counter a possibly unreliable army has not been created; and there are less elaborate ceremonial affairs involving the forces than is typical of the Eastern European countries.

Romania has had compulsory military service at all times within the memory of the draft age group, and it is accepted as a routine fact of life. Exemptions from the draft are few, and a large proportion of them reflect upon the man because he cannot meet the qualifications for service. The tour of duty is brief. The standard of living in the country is low, and service life may offer some of the back-country young men the best opportunities for travel and excitement that they have yet experienced.

Medicine

Physicians required in the armed forces are ordinarily recruited from medical schools but may be called from their practices or from hospital residence a.s.signments. They then attend a military medical inst.i.tute in Bucharest for specialized instruction in procedures and practices that are peculiar to military medical work.

Emergency treatment is given military personnel in the most convenient facility, whether or not it is a military clinic. The same is true for the civilian population. Inasmuch as military facilities are equipped to cope with wartime casualties, they are often better able to deal with emergencies or disasters than nonmilitary hospitals, although they are seldom kept at wartime strengths during peacetime. They were especially commended for their a.s.sistance during the great floods that occurred in the spring of 1970.

Military Justice

The national penal code enacted in 1968 applies both to military personnel and to the public at large. A special section of the code, however, deals with military crimes. These are crimes committed by military personnel or by nonmilitary personnel on military installations or infractions of military regulations. In theory, any court may pa.s.s judgment on a military crime, but the military court system employs specialists in military law who are better able to understand the seriousness of crimes committed in relation to the military establishment. Military courts seldom surrender cases over which they have jurisdiction to civil courts.

There are two types of military courts: military tribunals and territorial military tribunals. The former are the lesser of the two and are established at major installations or are attached to large tactical units. They are the courts of first instance in all cases that come before them. The chairman, or judge, must be a major or higher ranking officer and have a degree in law. The judge is a.s.sisted by two people's a.s.sessors who, on military courts, are active duty officers. People's a.s.sessors need have no legal training but, as is the case for civil courts, they must be twenty-three years of age, have been graduated from secondary school, have a good reputation, and have no criminal record.

In all military trials the judge and people's a.s.sessors must hold the same rank as, or higher than, the accused.

The higher territorial military tribunals are the courts of first instance for very serious crimes or the courts to which sentences of lower courts are appealed. In cases in which they are the courts of first instance, the court panel consists of at least two judges and three people's a.s.sessors. When they are hearing an appealed case, the panel has a minimum of three judges.

The Supreme Court of the land has final appeal jurisdiction over any case it may decide to hear, and it may review any case it chooses or that is sent to it by higher governmental agencies. It has a special military section that is headed by an officer of major general or higher rank. It may be the court of first instance for cases involving the most serious crimes or in lesser situations when an important legal precedent may be established.

Logistics

Military leaders state that their forces have adequate quant.i.ties of excellent and modern equipment. As is the situation with all other Warsaw Pact countries, Romania has received its heavy weapons and more complex equipment from the Soviet Union. Initially the Soviets distributed surplus World War II stocks. As these wore out or became obsolete, nearly all items were eventually replaced by postwar models.

More complex and expensive weapons sometimes were used by Soviet forces first and appeared in Eastern Europe only after they had been replaced in the Soviet Union. In most circ.u.mstances, whether they were newly manufactured or secondhand, items have been supplied to other forces considerably after they were first issued to Soviet troops.

Equipment that is in short supply has not been distributed to each of the pact allies on an equal priority basis. Distribution has depended upon the strategic importance of the recipient, capability for maintaining and using the equipment effectively, and probable reliability as an alliance partner. Romania is located where it would not be involved in first contacts with any potential enemy of the pact; its conscripts' tour, and the resulting time to train individual soldiers, is short; it is an underdeveloped country; and it has been probing for ways to a.s.sert its independence from Moscow. It has not therefore been the first to receive newer equipment. The distribution of tanks is ill.u.s.trative. Romania has received adequate numbers to equip its combat units and has received all models that have been distributed among the pact allies. Romania, however, has been authorized a smaller ratio of armored, as compared with motorized-rifle, divisions than is average for pact members. Poland and Czechoslovakia have many more tanks, and larger percentages of them are modern.

Ground forces have Soviet-made artillery, ant.i.tank guns and ant.i.tank wire-guided missiles, and some short-range surface-to-surface missiles.

Weapons manufactured locally for the ground forces include all types of hand-carried weapons, ant.i.tank and antipersonnel grenade launchers, and mortars. Ammunition and explosives for most weapons, whether or not the weapon is locally produced, are manufactured in the country, as are common varieties of communication equipment and spare parts.

All of the air forces' combat aircraft and nearly all of its training and miscellaneous types are received from the Soviet Union. Romania produces some small utility models. A new one, designed for spraying forests and crops, was introduced in 1970 and can be used for military liaison.

Approximately the same situation exists with regard to naval vessels.

The larger vessels and more complex smaller craft are built in the Soviet Union or by other members of the pact. Romania produces river craft and some smaller types, probably including the insh.o.r.e minesweepers that operate in the Black Sea.

Romania is attempting to reduce its dependence upon the Warsaw Pact by producing more military materiel within the country. The armed forces maintain the Military Achievements Exhibit, designed to show progress in local production capability. The exhibit is visited periodically by important party and government personalities. Much is made of these visits, attempting to show all possible encouragement to the various projects.

Ranks, Uniforms, and Decorations

Ranks conform to those in armies worldwide with a few minor exceptions.

There are the usual four general officer ranks. Field grades are conventional and have the three most frequently used t.i.tles--major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel. Company grade ranks include captain and three lieutenant ranks. There are no warrant officers.