Romania Tests Merops Counter-Drone System at Capu Midia; Miruță: Operational "Within Days"

Merops is developed by Project Eagle, the company founded by former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. The architecture combines radar-and-AI autonomous detection and targeting with the Surveyor interceptor drone as the kinetic effector; both Poland and Romania were outfitted with the US-made system, which has been used by Ukrainian troops to shoot down Russian-made Shahed drones and other incoming threats. Per Großwald reporting, the unit-cost benchmark is approximately $14,500 per interceptor — an order of magnitude cheaper than mid-tier surface-to-air missile interceptors.

The Capu Midia testing covered detection, thermal-imaging targeting and engagement against representative drone targets. The test results showed accurate detection, effective thermal imaging and reliable targeting performance; one interceptor failed to engage owing to target manoeuvring. Coverage area on Romanian territory is centred on the Danube river corridor, which has absorbed the operational fallout from the Ukrainian deep-strike campaign against Russian rear targets.

The Capu Midia clearance is the procurement-completion step. The structural test that follows is integration: a system cleared to fire at the Capu Midia range is not yet a system authorised, connected to the national air picture, and safe to use over populated terrain. That gap closes more slowly than procurement does, and procuring additional systems does not close it — a test that will register operationally when the next Russian drone incursion reaches Romanian populated territory. A trajectory first set out in Signal No. 46.